An Antioxidant Capacity Assay Using a Polyvinyl Alcohol-Based DPPH Pellet

To assay for antioxidant capacity of natural products considered important in producing human health benefits, a practical and economical method using pellet techniques was developed. A standard visualizing reagent, 1,1diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH), was mixed with a water-miscible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), serving as a solid phase support for the DPPH reagent. A DPPH pellet was prepared by dropping a small volume of the DPPH solution onto PET film, and drying in an oven. The PVA-based DPPH pellet was dissolved into water, in which the water-miscible PVA plays as a non-ionic surfactant to help the DPPH reagent to be dissolved into the solvent. Using the DPPH assay, the antioxidant capacity of water-soluble extracts of black soybean, barley, green tea, and green gram was examined. Among the natural products tested, green tea showed the highest antioxidant capacity. This PVA-based DPPH antioxidant assay can be further applied in the natural food, raw plant material, and health product inspection field.