Chemiluminescence investigations of antioxidative activities of some antibiotics against superoxide anion radical

A chemiluminescent technique was applied to determine antioxidative activities of adriamycin, farmorubicin, mitomycin C and bleomycin against superoxide anion radical (O 2 • ) in aprotic medium. The antioxidant capacity was expressed as the decrease in light emission from the O 2 • solution by and antibiotic. A KO 2 solution in dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and 18‐crown‐6 ether were used for the generation of O 2 • . The results showed that the examined compounds decreased the chemiluminescence (CL) sum from the O 2 • ‐generating system in a dose‐dependent manner. Among the antibiotics examined, adriamycin, farmorubicin and bleomycin exhibited antioxidant activity almost comparable to that of 1,2‐dihydroxy benzene‐3,5‐disulphonic acid (tiron), an efficient of the O 2 • inhibitor. Mitomycin C was two‐times less effective as tiron in decreasing the initial CL intensity. The proposed assay with usage of ultraweak CL technique and the KO 2 –DMSO–crown ether system was useful for the evaluation of antioxidant activity in aprotic solvents. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.