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O comportamento eletroquímico da quercetina em meio hidro-alcoólico foi estudado na faixa de pH 2,2-9,2 aplicando-se as técnicas voltametria cíclica, eletrólise com potencial controlado e espectroscopia UV-Vis. Voltamogramas cíclicos para a quercetina mostraram três picos de oxidação e um pico de redução dependente das condições experimentais. Um processo de oxidação envolvendo dois prótons e dois elétrons no primeiro pico conduziu à formação da orto-quinona correspondente, a qual é uma espécie eletroquimicamente ativa e instável, como evidenciado pela dependência do perfil dos voltamogramas cíclicos com a velocidade de variação de potencial, em concordância com um mecanismo do tipo eletroquímico-químico (EC). Eletrólises com potencial controlado geraram três produtos caracterizados por espectroscopia UV-Vis. Um esquema reacional envolvendo as etapas eletroquímica e química foi proposto para a eletro-oxidação da quercetina em solução hidro-alcoólica, com base em dados obtidos da literatura e em evidências experimentais.The electrochemistry of quercetin hydro-alcoholic solutions of pH 2.2 to 9.2 was studied by cyclic voltammetry, controlled-potential electrolysis and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammograms for quercetin showed three oxidation peaks and one reduction peak depending on the experimental conditions. The two-electron two-proton oxidation process at the first peak led to the formation of the corresponding ortho-quinone, which is an electrochemically active and unstable species, as evidenced by the dependence of the cyclic voltammogram profile on the applied scan rate, in agreement with the EC mechanism. Controlled-potential electrolysis yielded three products as characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy. A reaction scheme comprising electrochemical and chemical steps was proposed for the electro-oxidation of the quercetin in hydro-alcoholic solutions on basis of experimental evidences obtained in this work and elsewhere.

We investigated the antioxidant activity of phenylpropionic acids--caffeic (CAF), ferulic (FER), para-coumaric (COU) and cinnamic (CIN)--and phenolic acids and related compounds--gallic (GAL), methyl gallate (meGAL), vanillic (VAN) and gentisic (GEN)--using visible spectroscopy, inhibition of nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction, and electrochemical methods including cyclic voltammetry and potentiometry. In the spectroscopic assays, only CAF, GAL and meGAL were able to inhibit NBT reduction. The same compounds showed the lowest oxidation potentials (Epa) and the highest redox potentials deltaE) in the cyclic voltammetric and potentiometric studies, respectively. In addition, it was observed that the greater the number of hydroxyls linked to the aromatic ring, the greater was the antioxidant activity of the analysed compounds. The correlations of Spermann--used to compare the methods between themselves and the methods with the relationship structure-antioxidant activity--were r = -0.9762 for the cyclic voltammetric-potentiometric methods. r = 0.8333 for the inhibition of NBT reduction-potentiometric methods and r = -0.8095 for the inhibition of NBT reduction-cyclic voltammetric methods. The correlations for cyclic voltammetric, potentiometric and inhibition of NBT reduction methods-number of hydroxyls linked to the aromatic ring were r = -0.9636, 0.9636 and 0.9142, respectively. These findings indicate that the electrochemical methods together with spectroscopic studies are a good tool to evaluate the antioxidant activity of substances.

O comportamento eletroquímico do ácido cafeico (H 3 CAF) em meio aquoso foi estudado na faixa de pH 2,0-8,5 aplicando-se as técnicas voltametria cíclica, eletrólise com potencial controlado e espectroscopia UV-vis. A eletro-oxidação envolve a transferência reversível de dois elétrons e de dois prótons em soluções de pH até 5,5, de acordo com o mecanismo uma etapa-dois elétrons. Em soluções de pH superiores a 5,5 a eletro-oxidação do H 3 CAF segue um mecanismo EC i . O principal produto desta oxidação é a o-quinona correspondente (o-HCAF), a qual decompõe-se rapidamente em soluções de pH superior a 7,4, obedecendo a uma cinética de primeira ordem. Na faixa de pH 2,0-8,5, o potencial formal (E 0' ) varia linearmente com o pH, gerando uma reta com coeficiente angular de -60,83 mV/pH. Em paralelo, a corrente de pico anódica (i pa ) diminui de modo não-linear. Os processos são controlados por difusão em toda a faixa de pH estudada.The electrochemical behavior of caffeic acid (H 3 CAF) in aqueous solutions with pH 2.0 to 8.5 was studied by cyclic voltammetry, controlled potential electrolysis and UV-vis spectroscopy. The electrooxidation of H 3 CAF involves a reversible transfer of two electrons and two protons in solutions of pH up to 5.5, in agreement with the one step-two electron mechanism. In solutions of pH higher than 5.5, the process of electro-oxidation of H 3 CAF follows an EC i mechanism. The main oxidation product is the corresponding o-quinone (o-HCAF), which is decomposed quickly at pH higher than 7.4 obeying a first order kinetics. In the pH range investigated, the formal potential (E 0' ) varies linearly with pH, generating a straight line with an angular coefficient of -60.83 mV/pH. In parallel, the anodic peak current (i pa ) decreases in a nonlinear mode. The processes are controlled by diffusion over the whole pH range studied.