Synergistic Antioxidant Enhancement via Functional Deep Eutectic Systems

EMMANUEL D. DIKE; LUCAS B. AYRES; TOMAS E. BENAVIDEZ; JORGE BARROSO MORENO; CARLOS D. GARCIA

Simposio; 9th Annual Chemistry Research Symposium; 2024

Department of Chemistry, Clemon University

The degradation of unsaturated lipids in food products leading to the formation of potentially harmful reaction by-products, that cause a change in color, flavor and odor (rancidity) in food products is a major food health challenge. Among several strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of rancidity, the use of antioxidants has shown impeccable efficiency inhibiting these oxidative processes in food, there by preserving quality and shelf life. It is important to point out that the complicate interplay between antioxidant mixtures results in different antioxidative effects (synergistic effects, antagonistic effect and additive effect). Among these interactions, it has been confirmed that synergism is one of the most effective in improving oxidative stability. In this context, our group explored the use of artificial intelligence to develop a model capable of predicting combinatorial indexes of synergistic antioxidants. In parallel to this development, our group has also deployed the use of advanced AI models to grasp the complexity and understand the intricate interactions of eutectic mixtures such as deep eutectic solvents (DES). The developed algorithm from this particular research was capable of predicting the melting point of these mixtures at specific molar ratios. Based on these two researches, we discovered that commonly used synergistic antioxidants can be effectively deployed in the formulation of deep eutectic solvents (DES) that remain stable at room temperature. This remarkable discovery could leverage the enhancement of synergistic antioxidants in DES form, which this particular study addresses. The aim of this study was to investigate the antioxidative activities of the first-ever DES formulated with synergistic antioxidants, butyl hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) on the basis of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in cow and olive oil fats. The results from this assay showed that the DES exhibited higher antioxidative capacity compared to the BHA-BHT synergistic mixture.