Antioxidant activity of kafirins and procyanidins of sorghum against the superoxide anion radical

The objective of this research was to isolate, characterize, and determine the effects of kafirins and procyanidins of brown sorghum, against different concentrations of superoxide anion radical (O2•−) chemically generated in an aprotic polar medium. Likewise (-)-epicatechin, which represents the most abundant monomer of sorghum procyanidins was included as a reference system. Studies in this context are scarce and are considered relevant due to the abundance of such compounds and their potential application as drugs or functional ingredients in foods. By the effect of the hydrophobicity of the kafirins, these were better inhibitors of O2•− in the aprotic polar medium (DMSO) in which they were analyzed, compared to procyanidins and (-)-epicatechin that have a hydrophilic character. This result is important since procyanidins are considered one of the bioactive compounds with the highest antioxidant ability against a considerable number of free radicals.