Press Releases
ORAC to be evaluated as the standard method for the measurement of antioxidant capacity
Wareham, MA - May 23, 2005

Two white papers emerging from the 2004 Int'l Congress on Antioxidant Methods, along with an introductory document, are available for viewing at chemistry.org.

Antioxidants are best known to scavenge reactive oxygen species in vivo and thus help body fight against the pathophysiology of aging and a multitude of diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease.  Antioxidants have thus become a topic of increasing interest and there are an increasing number of studies reported every year. This meeting was held at a time when there was little consistency in antioxidant methods being reported and there were few papers using multiple antioxidant methods.

One of the three major topics of the meeting was the measurement of antioxidant capacity in food and biological systems. There were stimulating and often intense debates regarding methodologies. One of the two white papers discussed the standardization of chemical methods for estimating antioxidants in foods.

In the first white paper, Dr.Prior et al addressed the measurement of total phenolics and antioxidant capacity.  By thoroughly reviewing the current status of methods being used for the chemical estimation of antioxidants in foods,  they suggested three methods to be evaluated for standardization: oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), the Folin-Ciocalteu method, and possibly the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC).  ORAC is based on a hydrogen atom transfer reaction mechanism, which is relevant to human biology. The Folin-Ciocalteu method is an electron transfer based assay and measures reducing capacity, which has normally been used to estimate phenolic contents of biological materials. The TEAC assay represents a second electron transfer based method.

Brunswick Laboratories, LLC, is an independent, full-service bio-analytical laboratory specializing in the science of antioxidants and oxidative stress. Brunswick has worked closely with the USDA in the development of the ORAC Assay. Besides the ORAC assay, Brunswick also provides Folin-Ciocalteu and TEAC assays to measure the antioxidant capacity.