Comparison of in vitro antioxidant and antiradical activities of L-tyrosine and L-Dopa.

Phenolic compounds are interesting because of their antioxidant properties. In the present study, the antioxidant properties of L-tyrosine as a monophenolic and L-Dopa as a diphenolic amino acid were investigated by using different antioxidant assays: (i) 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl free radical (DPPH*) scavenging; (ii) 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical cation decolorization assay; (iii) total antioxidant activity by ferric thiocyanate method; (iv) ferric ions (Fe3+) reducing power; (v) superoxide anion radical (O2*-) scavenging; (vi) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging, and (vii) ferrous ions (Fe2+) chelating activities. Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), alpha-tocopherol and trolox, a water-soluble analogue of tocopherol, were used as the reference antioxidant compounds. At the same concentration (20 microg/mL), L-tyrosine and L-Dopa showed 30.6 and 67.9% inhibition of lipid peroxidation of linoleic acid emulsion, respectively. On the other hand, BHA, BHT, alpha-tocopherol and trolox indicated inhibitions of 74.4, 71.2, 54.7 and 20.1% on the peroxidation of linoleic acid emulsion, respectively, at the above-mentioned concentration. In addition, L-tyrosine and L-Dopa had an effect on DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical scavenging, H2O2 scavenging, total ferric ions reducing power and metal chelating on ferrous ions activities.