A novel electrochemical micro-titration method for quantitative evaluation of the DPPH free radical scavenging capacity of caffeic acid

Abstract

Abstract In this report, the stoichiometric ratio (R) for the interaction of diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals with the antioxidant was employed as an evaluation index for the DPPH radical scavenging activity of antioxidants. This evaluation index was related only to the stoichiometric relationship of DPPH radicals with the antioxidant and had no relationship with the initial DPPH amount and the sample volume, which could offer a solution to the problem of poor comparability of EC50 values under different conditions. A novel electrochemical micro-titration method was proposed for the determination of the stoichiometric ratio (R) for the interaction of DPPH radicals with the antioxidant. This electrochemical micro-titration model was verified using caffeic acid as the DPPH radical scavenger, with the stoichiometric ratio (R) of DPPH radicals to caffeic acid determined to be in the range of 2.003–2.046. The calculated EC50 values were 0.513, 1.011, and 1.981 × 10–5 mol/L for 2.10, 4.05, and 8.02 × 10–7 moL of added DPPH radicals, respectively. The proposed method showed no differences from the conventional method, but had better precision and reliability, and used a smaller amount of sample.