WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- An international team of chemists has developed a new family of antioxidants they say could be up to 100 times more effective than Vitamin E.
Antioxidants are molecules that can counteract the damaging effects of oxygen in tissues and other materials.
The market for antioxidants in North America is estimated at more than $800 million per year. Even if the compounds are found to be unusable in food or drugs, they could still be used to treat plastics, rubber, fuels and lubricants, agricultural feed, and cosmetics.
While previous scientists have attempted to create antioxidants by attaching nitrogen atoms to carbon rings, these antioxidants, developed by Derek Pratt, replace some of the carbon atoms with nitrogen atoms, making them a part of the ring itself and creating more stability in oxygen, the New Scientist reported Monday.
Initial tests on the new antioxidants have been promising, however they have not yet been tested on animals or humans. Vanderbilt University has a patent pending on the new compounds.
