Quantification, characterization and description of synergy and antagonism in the antioxidant response.

Abstract: This paper illustrates a methodological procedure to determine the synergistic and antagonistic effects of combining antioxidant agents. Current methods to determinate the interactive actions of antioxidants have been rejected, and we attempt to address this issue by incorporating well-established ideas from different existing fields. Two mathematical models are proposed, which provide explicit algebraic forms and generalize the classical hypothesis of independent action and concentration addition as they are defined in the dose–response relationships. In addition, a comprehensive index to summarize all the complex responses in one single value is proposed, which allows the extraction and identification of the relevant aspects. Although the approach could be directly expanded to other types of classical antioxidant methods, two complex scenarios were recreated using different but complementary well-known kinetic antioxidant methods, which are fairly representative of lipidic and hydrophilic oxidation processes. Meanings of synergy and antagonism concepts were found that describe and characterize the interactions between several pairs of commercial antioxidants in a statistically consistent form. The results also provided some evidence of a more basic character, which, if transferable to more realistic food matrices in the food industry, may guide the development and evaluation of food products and processes, as well as the study of mechanisms underlying different phenomena that may affect the quality of products. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]