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Indigo carmine is a commonly used industrial blue dye. To determine its concentration in a commercially available food dye composed of a mixture of indigo carmine and D-glucose, this paper characterizes it through (ATR, KBr) FTIR micro-Raman as well as UV/Vis and clock: Briggs-Rauscher (BR) oscillatory reaction methods. The indigo carmine was detected in the bulk food dye only by applying micro-Raman spectroscopy, indicating a low percentage of the indigo carmine present. This research provides an improvement in the deviations from the experimental Raman spectrum as calculated by the B97D/cc-pVTZ level of theory one, resulting in a better geometrical optimization of the indigo carmine molecule compared to data within the literature. The analytical curves used to determine indigo carmine concentrations (and quantities) in an aqueous solution of food dye were applied by means of UV/Vis and BR methods. BR yielded significantly better analytical parameters: 100 times lower LOD and LOQ compared to commonly used UV/Vis. The remarkable sensitivity of the BR reaction towards indigo carmine suggests that not only does indigo carmine react in an oscillatory reaction but also its decomposition products, meaning that the multiple oxidation reactions have an important role in the BR's indigo carmine mechanism. The novelty of this research is the investigation of indigo carmine using a clock BR reaction, opening new possibilities to determine indigo carmine in other complex samples (pharmaceutical, food, etc.).

Superoxide radical is one of the main players when it comes to oxidative stress. Even if in itself is moderately reactive and can cause the degradation of very few biologically relevant macromolecules, it can dismutate to hydrogen peroxide followed by a possible conversion to hydroxyl radical. In order to protect the internal environment against reactive oxygen species, plants have evolved a line of defence made from secondary metabolites with versatile redox properties, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids. Their characteristics are highly modulated by pH, as they turn into prooxidant compounds as it increases. Reported here are the behaviour and clear patterns in reactivity towards superoxide anion radical of four classes of plant phenolics as a pH function. The reactivity towards superoxide radical in acidic conditions has been studied by use of oscillating Briggs-Rauscher reaction with a new spectroelectrochemical experimental setup, by recording the absorbance in high quality for the first time. Some mechanistic intricacies have also been explored with regard to this method. Reactivity modulation at neutral and slightly basic pH has been assayed by superoxide radical scavenging ability using nitroblue tetrazolium as a substrate. For stronger alkaline pHs studies, Electron Paramagnetic Resonance was exploited. Hydroxybenzoic acids tend to be the least reactive species at all tested pH values. Hydroxycinnamic acids have their activity towards superoxide radical decreased as the pH increases, whereas flavonoids act vice versa., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper reports a method for evaluating antioxidant capacity based on the inhibitory effects of a macrocyclic Ni(II) complex-catalysed Briggs-Rauscher reaction. The macrocyclic Ni(II) complex NiL(ClO4)2, in which L is 5,7,7,12,14,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradeca-4,11-diene, is a porphyrin-like compound, the structure of which can be found in certain enzymes. The experiments indicated that three natural compounds could temporarily quench the oscillations for a period of time prior to regeneration of oscillations. The inhibition time was related to the compound type and concentration; thus, procedures for evaluating the antioxidant activities of polyphenolic compounds were successfully established. Three polyphenolic compounds were tested to evaluate their antioxidant activities: protocatechuic acid, rutin hydrate and procyanidin. Of these three naturally occurring compounds, procyanidin was found to be the most efficient antioxidant. We have also discussed the reaction of the antioxidant with the hydroperoxyl radical (HOO) present in the oscillating system., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)