Riboflavin Antioxidant Scavenging Activity in the Presence of Sunlight

Free radicals are natural metabolic products that can cause some serious damages to living cells like molecular oxidation and genetic mutation. Antioxidants are natural or synthetic molecules which inhibit the living cell‘s oxidation caused by free radicals. One of the natural antioxidants is riboflavin, which is available in many plants and animal materials. Riboflavin molecule is a photosensitive material which through the photochemical reaction causes chemical changes in the adjacent molecules. The effect of antioxidant and photosensitizer properties.
In this study, the effect of four important parameters including temperature, riboflavin concentration, time and light irradiation on the antioxidant properties of riboflavin were investigated. The antioxidant activity of the riboflavin was determined based on the scavenging DPPH free radical (2, 2-diphnyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) using UV-Vis spectrophotometer.
The antioxidant activity of riboflavin is increased by increasing the concentration in the range of 0.4-0.7 mM. In the presence of sunlight, the free radicals of DPPH were completely scavenged by the antioxidant activity of riboflavin. In the applied temperature range, by increasing the temperature, the antioxidants activity became more intense in the free radical scavenging. Regarding kinetic, the DPPH free radical scavenging reaction was described using the first-order kinetic equation.
According to this study, riboflavin as a photosensitive materials has a significant antioxidant effect on free radical DPPH in the presence of sunlight.