The Scavenger Effects of Various Antioxidants in Cigarette Filters on the Free Radicals in Mainstream Smoke

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of additives (antioxidants for free radicals reduction) in cigarette filter treated with various antioxidants (three types of proanthocyanidins and ascorbic acid) and various concentrations of ascorbic acid and loaded with activated carbon on the delivery of free radicals of mainstream smoke (MS) by ESR. Also, we analyzed Hoffmann's analytes andscavenger activity according to the storage time and in vitro cytotoxicity. The analysis of spin number of vapor and particulate phase free radicals in MS are decreased to $14{\sim}24\;%$ and $16{\sim}40\;%$, respectively. As aresult of antioxidant potential for inactivity of vapor and particulate phase free radicals, natural antioxidants were more effective than ascorbic acid. Based on the result of the analysis of Hoffmann's analytes for various antioxidantstreated cigarette filters during the smoking, cigarette filter treated with ascorbic acid showed the lower amount of the deliveries of hydroquinone, isoprene and quinoline in MS than those treated with the other antioxidants. In the significant t-test on the difference of the cytotoxicity among the various antioxidants treated-cigarette filters, there are no significant differences at the 95 % confidence level. Those results indicated that the antioxidants were useful for reducing free radicals in MS because of the fast reaction between antioxidant and free radicals.