Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis

Alcohol: Friend or FOE? Alcoholic Beverage Hormesis for Cataract and Atherosclerosis is Related to Plasma Antioxidant Activity

“…The sample consisted of an aqueous portion (0.3 mL) and a dimethyl sulfoxide portion (0.4 mL). The aqueous portion contained luminol and albumin (0.02 mL, 10 mg/mL of each) prepared as described (Trevithick et al, 1999a(Trevithick et al, , 1999b, plasma (0.07 mL) and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, 0.04 mL), alcohol (0.07 mL) at appropriate dilution or distilled water (for controls), and hydrogen peroxide (0.1 mL of 0.9%) added after the addition of DMSO (0.4 mL), just before the tube was placed in the counter to begin counting of the emitted light. The counts were recorded for a 10-s time period.…”

“…The luminescent assay was described previously (Trevithick and Dzialoszynski, 1994;Trevithick et al, 1999aTrevithick et al, , 1999b) using a luminometer (Lumac 1010) to measure the photons counted following addition of a standard amount of peroxide to the assay. For plasma samples, data are normalized to the initial samples, taken before the consumption of the beverages.…”

“…To obtain comparative abilities of the drinks to act as antioxidants, aliquots were assayed to see whether they could alter the luminescence resulting from the presence of a standard amount of hydrogen peroxide (37.8 mM) reacting with luminol bound to bovine albumin, as described previously (Trevithick and Dzialoszynski, 1994;Trevithick et al, 1999aTrevithick et al, , 1999b. Antioxidant activity was calculated as the decrease in counts after addition of the beverage samples, as a percent of the control.…”

“…To this end, the concentrations of polyphenols in the beverages were determined using Folin Ciocalteau reagent standardized with catechin (Trevithick et al, 1999a;Vinson et al, 2003). Using these values, an IC 50 expressed as catachin equivalent concentration could be calculated to give an idea of the antioxidant availability for each beverage.…”

“…For this reason we felt it was important to use our luminescent assay (Trevithick and Dzialoszynski, 1994;Trevithick et al, 1999aTrevithick et al, , 1999b to examine the plasma oxidative status of people after they consumed one or three typical drinks of beer, stout and nonalcoholic stout, wine, or a solution of an equal amount of ethanol.…”