In Vitro Analyses of Antioxidant Activity of Food Supplements GE Kids ® and GE 132+ Natural ®

Nutrition related research, including the studies focused on the natural dietary antioxidants are getting more and more attention. Functional foods, that contain known or unknown biologically active compounds, promote health and wellbeing beyond dietary needs. Exogenous originating reducing compounds such as vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids and polyphenols, play important role in many antioxidant mechanisms in living organisms. There are a great number of synthetic antioxidant products in the market, whereby tendency is to replace synthetic antioxidants by natural ones. Here we examined the antioxidant properties of GE kids® and GE 132+ natural®, food supplements designed for maintenance and improvement of immune response in children and adults, respectively. Antioxidant properties were analyzed in vitro by testing their ability to scavenge free radical species and their ferric reducing antioxidant power. GE kids® and GE 132+ natural® showed antioxidant activity against physiologically relevant hydroxyl and superoxide radical, as well as against artificial radicals 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS·+), commonly used for in vitro analyses of antioxidant properties. Interestingly, both food supplements showed the highest efficacy in scavenging hydroxyl radical, free radical which can be neutralized only by non‐enzymatic systems. Accordingly, anti-hydroxyl radical activity was equivalent to activity of 533.3 ± 6.1 mg of ascorbic acid (AA) per GE kids® sachet and 172.6 ± 12.3 mg of AA per GE 132+ natural® capsule. Results suggest that GE kids® and GE 132+ natural® may contribute maintaining the physiological levels of free radicals and therefore the oxido-redox balance in the organism.