Activity of antioxidants in solution and in irradiated heterogeneous system

The efficiency of some common antioxidants, α-tocopherol, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), was studied relative to β-carotene in a homogeneous solution and in a model system of an irradiated solid food. Relative reactivities in homogeneous solution covered a range of three orders of magnitude, α-tocopherol being the best and BHT the poorest antioxidant of the three. In irradiated systems consisting of oleic acid coated on a solid support (egg white), the range of reactivities was much narrower within one order of magnitude. In solution, there was a parallelism of the relative reactivities with oxidizing alkoxyl radicals derived from oleic acid hydroperoxides andtert-butyl hydroperoxide. On the solid support the relative reactivities of α-tocopherol and BHA with oleic acid radiation-induced oxidizing radicals were reversed, BHA appearing the best. Efficient antioxidants do not retain their great antioxidant activity in comparison with the moderate ones on transition from a homogeneous solution to a heterogeneous system. Relative efficiencies of antioxidants do not critically depend on the nature of oxidizing radicals in heterogeneous media.