Spectrophotometric FIA methods for determination of hydrogen peroxide: Application to evaluation of scavenging capacity

The determination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the evaluation of scavenging capacity against this species were performed using five colorimetric reactions, which were adapted to flow injection analysis. The reactions chosen were based on the oxidation of iodide (I− method), on the formation of titanium-peroxide complex (TiP method), on the formation of titanium-xylenol orange-peroxide complex (TiXoP method), on the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB method) and on the co-oxidation of phenol-4-sulfonic acid and 4-aminoantipyrine (PSA/4-AAP method). The operational conditions were studied in order to improve the sensitivity of each method. Concerning to the method sensitivity, the ranking order was TMB method > I− method > TiXoP method ∼PSA/4-AAP method > TiP method. All methods showed an excellent repeatability (RSD < 2%) and, except for I− method, relative deviations from the reference method were <1.9%. The FIA manifolds were adapted to perform the determination of scavenging capacity against H2O2 and glutathione (GSH) was applied as model compound. TiP and TiXoP methods were not suitable as no inhibition or an increase of analytical signal was attained. PSA/4-AAP method was chosen for further application to dietary phenolics and pharmaceutical compounds, providing IC50 values for those compounds that are fast reacting antioxidants.