Antioxidative compounds isolated from kokuto, non-centrifugal cane sugar

Five antioxidative compounds were isolated from dichloromethane extracts of kokuto, a kind of non-centrifugal sugar, and identified by spectral analysis as syringaresinol (1), medioresinol (2), coniferyl alcohol (3), sinapyl alcohol (4), and 3-hydroxy-1-(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-propanone (5). The antioxidative activities of I as determined by the ferric thiocyanate method and by the thiobarbituric acid (TEA) method were respectively superior to and similar to those of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). 2 and 5 had stronger activities than BHA, while 3 and 4 respectively had almost the same and weaker activities than BHA.