Hypericin from St. John’s Wort (hypericum perforatum) as a novel natural fluorophore for chemiluminescence reaction of bis (2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate–H2O2–imidazole and quenching effect of some natural lipophilic hydrogen peroxide scavengers

Hypericin (HYP) molecule is a natural photoactive pigment, which plays a role as an effective photoreceptor in some plants of the Hypericum species (the most common of which is Saint John’s Wort) and some insect species. The present work deals with the first attempt to the study of peroxyoxalate chemiluminescence (POCL) system in the presense of HYP as a natural fluorophore. Reaction of bis (2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate(TCPO)–H2O2–imidazole can transfer energy to a HYP via formation of dioxetane through the chemically initiated electron exchange luminescence (CIEEL) mechanism and can emits a very intense red light. The effects of HYP, hydrogen peroxide, TCPO and imidazole concentrations on kinetic chemiluminescence parameters were also studied. These parameters including rise and fall rate constant for the chemiluminescence burst, theoretical and experimental maximum intensity, theoretical and experimental time to reach maximum intensity and total light yield emission were evaluated by using a pooled intermediate model for a non-linear least-squares curve fitting program, KINFIT. Moreover, quenching effect of two lipophilic natural antioxidant, Quercetin and β-carotene on it system was also investigated. The measurable concentration range of 7×10−6 M to 7.5×10−5 M of antioxidants were evaluated from the proper Stern–Volmer plots with satisfactory RSD% and corresponding detection limits of 2.2×10−6 and 3.7×10−6 for β-carotene and quercetin respectively.