ANTIOXIDATIVE ACTIVITIES OF SOME DIETARY FIBERS DETERMINED BY AN NIR EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY

Constituents of several .representative seaweeds, such as wakame Undaria pinnatifida; hijikia Hizikia fusifome; and kombu Laminaria japonica, were found to have fairly large reaction rates determined by quenching experiments of emission spectra in the near-infrared region (1max: 1270 nm) from singlet oxygen (102). Emission spectra of singlet oxygen generated from an aqueous solution of Rose Bengal under irradiation with a green laser (330 nm) were measured by a near-infrared (NIR) emission spectrometer constructed in our laboratory. The quenching experiments were as follows: Intensities of emission spectra were measured in the absence (I0) and in the presence of the seaweed constituents (I): Ratios of I0/I were plotted against every concentration of the quenchers (Stern-Volmer plots) which gives a straight line. The slope of each line gives a kqt value which gives a quenching constant kq value (an antioxidative constant against singlet oxygen) when the t value (half-life time of singlet oxygen in the solvent used) was given. The determined reaction rates are between 103-105 (g/l)-ls-1; the larger ones are as large as that of ascorbic acid, 8.4 ${\times}$ 104 (g/1)-ls-1. Most of these seaweed constituents also showed antioxidative activity against auto-oxidation and superoxide as well as their immunological enhancing activity. These results suggest a possibility that dietary fibers which are supposed to prevent the large-intestine cancer by their physical properties may prevent the cancer, at least in parts, by their chemical, antioxidative activity.