In vitro antioxidant capacity of commercial dietary supplements.

Consumption of food rich in natural antioxidant compounds has been linked to a reduced risk of developing chronic oxidative stress-related diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. This therapeutic potential of antioxidants has lead, in recent years, to a dramatic growth of the market of functional foods and dietary supplements (DS) claiming “antioxidant power”, and to the widespread consumption of these products. In this work, the in vitro antioxidant activity (AA) of 6 DS (capsules/tablets), obtained from local markets, was determined by four different assays: scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals, reducing power (RP), inhibition of lipid peroxidation using thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and β-carotene-linoleate model systems.