Chemiluminescence investigations of antioxidative activities of some antibiotics against superoxide anion radical

A chemiluminescent technique was applied to determine antioxidative activities of adriamycin, farmorubicin, mitomycin C and bleomycin against superoxide anion radical (O(2)(•)) in aprotic medium. The antioxidant capacity was expressed as the decrease in light emission from the O(2)(•) solution by and antibiotic. A KO(2) solution in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and 18-crown-6 ether were used for the generation of O(2)(•). The results showed that the examined compounds decreased the chemiluminescence (CL) sum from the O(2)(•)-generating system in a dose-dependent manner. Among the antibiotics examined, adriamycin, farmorubicin and bleomycin exhibited antioxidant activity almost comparable to that of 1,2-dihydroxy benzene-3,5-disulphonic acid (tiron), an efficient of the O(2)(•) inhibitor. Mitomycin C was two-times less effective as tiron in decreasing the initial CL intensity. The proposed assay with usage of ultraweak CL technique and the KO(2)-DMSO-crown ether system was useful for the evaluation of antioxidant activity in aprotic solvents.