Rapid measurement of total antioxidant capacity in plants

Kelly M Gillespie; June M Chae; Elizabeth A Ainsworth

doi:10.1038/nprot.2007.100

Rapid measurement of total antioxidant capacity in plants

Nat Protoc. 2007;2(4):867-70. doi: 10.1038/nprot.2007.100.

Authors

Kelly M Gillespie¹, June M Chae, Elizabeth A Ainsworth

Affiliation

¹ Program in Physiological and Molecular Plant Biology and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 147 ERML, 1201 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.

PMID: 17446887
DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2007.100

Abstract

There is growing interest in measuring the antioxidant status of plant tissues. This protocol describes the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, which measures antioxidant inhibition of peroxyl radical-induced oxidations and is a measure of total antioxidant capacity. The assay is performed in a microplate and is assessed with a 96-well multi-detection plate reader. Total antioxidant capacity of 64 experimental samples can easily be analyzed in 1 d. This assay is presented along with rapid assays for total phenolic content and total ascorbate content. Overall, these assays provide a general diagnostic tool of the antioxidant capacity in leaf tissue extracts.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Antioxidants / analysis*
Fluorescent Dyes / analysis
Plants / chemistry
Plants / metabolism*
Reactive Oxygen Species / analysis*
Spectrometry, Fluorescence / methods*

Substances

Antioxidants
Fluorescent Dyes
Reactive Oxygen Species