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. 1994 Jan;32(1):31-6.
doi: 10.1016/0278-6915(84)90033-4.

Antioxidant actions of thymol, carvacrol, 6-gingerol, zingerone and hydroxytyrosol

R Aeschbach  1 , J Löliger, B C Scott, A Murcia, J Butler, B Halliwell, O I Aruoma
Affiliations

Antioxidant actions of thymol, carvacrol, 6-gingerol, zingerone and hydroxytyrosol

R Aeschbach et al. Food Chem Toxicol. 1994 Jan.

Abstract

Antioxidants minimize oxidation of the lipid components in foods. There is an increasing interest in the use of natural and/or synthetic antioxidants in food preservation, but it is important to evaluate such compounds fully for both antioxidant and pro-oxidant properties. The properties of thymol, carvacrol, 6-ginerol, hydroxytyrosol and zingerone were characterized in detail. Thymol, carvacrol, 6-gingerol and hydroxytyrosol decreased peroxidation of phospholipid liposomes in the presence of iron(III) and ascorbate, but zingerone had only a weak inhibitory effect on the system. The compounds were good scavengers of peroxyl radicals (CCl3O2; calculated rate constants > 10(6) M-1 sec-1) generated by pulse radiolysis. Thymol, carvacrol, 6-gingerol and zingerone were not able to accelerate DNA damage in the bleomycin-Fe(III) system. Hydroxytyrosol promoted deoxyribose damage in the deoxyribose assay and also promoted DNA damage in the bleomycin-Fe(III) system. This promotion was inhibited strongly in the deoxyribose assay by the addition of bovine serum albumin to the reaction mixtures. Our data suggest that thymol, carvacrol and 6-gingerol possess useful antioxidant properties and may become important in the search for 'natural' replacements for 'synthetic' antioxidant food additives.

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