J Appl Biomed 5:81-84, 2007 | DOI: 10.32725/jab.2007.011

Assay of radical scavenging activity of antidotes against chemical warfare agents by DPPH test using sequential injection technique

Vít Kolečkář^1,2, Daniel Jun^2,3, Luboš Opletal¹, Luděk Jahodář¹, Kamil Kuča^2,3,*

¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Botany and Ecology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

² Center of Advanced Studies, Faculty of Military Health Sciences, University of Defence, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

³ Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Military Health Sciences, University of Defence, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Free radicals are believed to play an important role in many pathological states. Consequently antioxidants are receiving increased attention in medicinal research. As part of studies of the biological effects of the antidotes against chemical warfare agents currently used in the Czech Armed Forces, eleven compounds were assayed for their free radical scavenging activity. An optimized PC-controlled sequential injection analysis (SIA) system with spectrophotometric detection was used for evaluation of the antioxidation activity of the antidotes. The automated method is based on the known reaction of 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) with antioxidants. Only the radical scavenging activity of the tested compound 2,3-dimercaptopropanol (BAL) was found to be weaker compared to the reference antioxidant acidum ascorbicum. Other tested antidotes did not possess any DPPH radical scavenging activity. The results obtained show that a correlation between the required biological activity (prophylaxis or treatment of intoxications by warfare agents) and possible antioxidation activity of the tested antidotes is doubtful.

Keywords: antioxidant; radical; analysis; antidote; warfare agent

Received: November 2, 2006; Revised: January 3, 2007; Published: July 31, 2007  Show citation