Peroxyl radical scavenging activity measurement of antioxidants using histidine-stabilized and glutathione-capped fluorescent gold nanoclusters

A fluorescent gold nanocluster was used for determining peroxyl radical scavenging activity of antioxidants. Histidine was used as a green reducing and protective agent, and glutathione (GSH) enhanced the fluorescence intensity of histidine-stabilized gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) by ligand exchange process. When AAPH-induced oxidation of GSH occurred, the initial fluorescence intensity of GSH-capped AuNCs (lambda ex = 450 nm lambda(em) = 502 nm) was decreased with static quenching. The decline of fluorescence intensity of the GSH-capped AuNCs upon peroxyl radical attack is diminished with the addition of antioxidants to the reaction medium, the difference in fluorescence intensity being related to peroxyl radical scavenging activity of antioxidants. The 50 % inhibitive concentration of related antioxidant compounds were determined and compared to those of crocin bleaching assay. Inhibition % of sage (Salvia officinalis L.) and green tea (Camellia sinensis) infusions against peroxyl radicals were investigated. The proposed assay can be used for simple and selective estimation of the peroxyl radical scavenging activity in complex matrices, as histidine-stabilized GSH-capped AuNCs were selective toward per-oxyl radicals, not affected by other ROS at the studied concentrations.