Phytochemical Betacyanins, the Best Free Radical Scavenger

By Kyle J. Norton

Free radical scavengers are types of antioxidants that inhibit free radicals before they can induce a chain of reaction, leading to the onset of oxidative stress.

Antioxidants are stable atoms which inhibit oxidation caused by free radical.

Oxidative stress associated with chronic disease is caused by long-term imbalanced ratio of free radicals and antioxidants. Oxidative stress has been found epidemiologically to induce proteins, lipid, and cellular damage, a major causes of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Antioxidants besides produced by the body, they can also come into the body from the dietary sources.

Normally, in a healthy individual, antioxidant enzymes produced by the liver are more than enough to counter the expression of free radicals induced by cell metabolism and the environment such as the air we breathe and the food we eat.

However, people with a weakened immune system, intake of antioxidant from outside sources such as fruits and vegetables can be helpful.

Not all free radicals are bad, in a moderate amount, free radicals are necessary for the body functioning, including the promotion of heart function in blood circulation.

Most common types of free radical scavengers produced by the human
* Catalases are antioxidants that protect the cell from oxidative damage by decomposed hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen.

*Glutathione peroxidase, is a cytosolic enzyme produced by the host that dissolves hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen and peroxide radicals to alcohols and oxygen.

*Superoxide dismutase (SOD)  dissolves superoxide radical into either ordinary molecular oxygen or hydrogen peroxide.

Most common types of free radical scavenger injected by the dietary sources
* Phenolics has been found to inactivate certain free radicals such as tocopherol found in tea, soybean, corn, grape, and safflower,

* Ascorbate or vitamin C is found most abundantly in green vegetables, citrus fruits, tomatoes, berries, and potatoes.

* Thiols that processed the function to quench singlet oxygen is found in onion, garlic, beer, cabbage, tea, and coffee

* Carotenoids that process the function in the deactivation of free radical with singlet oxygen, are found in tomato and carrot

Betacyanins are phytochemicals in the class of red and yellow indole-derived pigments, belonging to the group of Betalains, found abundantly in beets, chard, etc.

On finding a natural pigment which processes a significant antioxidant activity, researchers examined the Betacyanins effects on peroxyl radicals.

Based on the results of the tested assays, researchers found that

* Betanin found in betacyanins was a weak retarder in methanol and an effective chain-breaking antioxidant in the liposomal model

* Compared to betanin, betanidin other compound found betacyanins, behaved as a chain terminating antioxidant in both models.

Furthermore, according to the kinetic parameters characterizing peroxyl radical-scavenging activity, betanidin was more effective than betanin.

The results suggested that the antioxidant efficacy found in betacyanins was associated with all phytochemicals, including the major compound betanin and betanidin that work synergistically to exhibit anti-free radicals activity.

Moreover, in the assessment of the antioxidant capacity of the betacyanins in an index of radical scavenging ability, using the peroxyl radical generating system in the presence of AAPH and NO-generating system using NOR3 as a NO donor suggested that

* Betacyanins expressed peroxyl radical scavenging capacity in a dose-dependent in the low concentration range (25-100 nM).

* In free radical NO, administration of betacyanins also reduced the nitrite-level in the low concentration range of 2.5-20 μM.

* The antioxidant capacity according to individual major compounds of betanidin, betanin, and phyllocactin, are 10.70, 3.31 and 2.83 mol-TEA/mol respectively.

* The The IC₅₀ values (μM) of nitrogen radical scavenging activity of betanin, phyllocactin and betanidin.are 24.48, 17.51 and 6.81, respectively.

Dr. Taira J, the lead scientist based on the findings wrote, "These results indicated that betacyanins have a strong antioxidant capacity, particularly betanidin with a catechol group had higher activity than those of the glycoside of betacyanins".

Taken altogether, betacyanins processed abundantly bioactive ingredient betanin may be considered a remedy for the prevention and treatment of liver steatosis, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of betacyanins in the form of supplement should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Betacyanins as phenol antioxidants. Chemistry and mechanistic aspects of the lipoperoxyl radical-scavenging activity in solution and liposomes by Tesoriere L1, Allegra M, Gentile C, Livrea MA.(PubMed)
(2) Antioxidant capacity of betacyanins as radical scavengers for peroxyl radical and nitric oxide by Taira J1, Tsuchida E2, Katoh MC2, Uehara M2, Ogi T. (PubMed)