Kinetics studies provide mechanistic insight regarding the formation of dinitrosyl iron complexes (DNICs) now viewed as playing important roles in the mammalian chemical biology of the ubiquitous bioregulator nitric oxide (NO). Reactions in deaerated aqueous solutions containing FeSO4, cysteine (CysSH), and NO demonstrate that both the rates and the outcomes are markedly pH dependent. The dinuclear DNIC Fe2(μ-CysS)2(NO)4, a Roussin’s red salt ester (Cys-RSE), is formed at pH 5.0 as well as at lower concentrations of cysteine in neutral pH solutions. The mononuclear DNIC Fe(NO)2(CysS)2– (Cys-DNIC) is produced from the same three components at pH 10.0 and at higher cysteine concentrations at neutral pH. The kinetics studies suggest that both Cys-RSE and Cys-DNIC are formed via a common intermediate Fe(NO)(CysS)2–. Cys-DNIC and Cys-RSE interconvert, and the rates of this process depend on the cysteine concentration and on the pH. Flash photolysis of the Cys-RSE formed from Fe(II)/NO/cysteine mixtures in anaerobic pH 5.0 solution led to reversible NO dissociation and a rapid, second-order back reaction with a rate constant kNO = 6.9 × 107 M–1 s–1. In contrast, photolysis of the mononuclear-DNIC species Cys-DNIC formed from Fe(II)/NO/cysteine mixtures in anaerobic pH 10.0 solution did not labilize NO but instead apparently led to release of the CysS• radical. These studies illustrate the complicated reaction dynamics interconnecting the DNIC species and offer a mechanistic model for the key steps leading to these non-heme iron nitrosyl complexes.

In the reaction between trans-resveratrol (resveratrol) and the hydroxyl radical, kinetic product control leads to a short-lived hydroxyl radical adduct with an absorption maximum at 420 nm and a lifetime of 0.21 ± 0.01 μs (anaerobic acetonitrile at 25 °C) as shown by laser flash photolysis using N-hydroxypyridine-2(1H)-thione (N-HPT) as a “photo-Fenton” reagent. The transient spectra of the radical adduct are in agreement with density functional theory (DFT) calculations showing an absorption maximum at 442 or 422 nm for C2 and C6 hydroxyl adducts, respectively, and showing the lowest energy for the transition state leading to the C2 adduct compared to other radical products. From this initial product, the relative long-lived 4′-phenoxyl radical of resveratrol (τ = 9.9 ± 0.9 μs) with an absorption maximum at 390 nm is formed in a process with a time constant (τ = 0.21 ± 0.01 μs) similar to the decay constant for the C2 hydroxyl adduct (or a C2/C6 hydroxyl adduct mixture) and in agreement with thermodynamics identifying this product as the most stable resveratrol radical. The hydroxyl radical adduct to phenoxyl radical conversion with concomitant water dissociation has a rate constant of 5 × 106 s–1 and may occur by intramolecular hydrogen atom transfer or by stepwise proton-assisted electron transfer. Photolysis of N-HPT also leads to a thiyl radical which adds to resveratrol in a parallel reaction forming a sulfur radical adduct with a lifetime of 0.28 ± 0.04 μs and an absorption maximum at 483 nm.

Regeneration of β-carotene from the β-carotene radical cation by the 4′-propylpuerarin anion (second-order rate constant = 1.5 × 109 L mol–1 s–1 in methanol/chloroform = 1:9 (v/v) solution at 25 °C as determined by laser flash photolysis) was found to be marginally slower than regeneration by the 7-propylpuerarin anion (2.3 × 109 L mol–1 s–1), in agreement with the 7-propylpuerarin anion being more reducing (E′ = 0.56 V vs NHE) than the 4′-propylpuerarin anion (E′ = 1.01 V vs NHE). The potentials were calculated from E° = 1.12 and 1.44 V (vs NHE) as determined by cyclic voltametry in aqueous solution and pKa = 9.51 and 7.23 obtained previously for 7-propylpuerarin and 4′-propylpuerarin, respectively. The less reducing but more acidic 4′-propylpuerarin showed less antioxidant activity in liposome of pH 7.4, but more significant antioxidant synergism with β-carotene than the more reducing but less acidic 7-propylpuerarin for oxidation initiated in the liposome lipid phase. Electrostatic effects are concluded to be important in the regeneration of β-carotene from the radical cation in the water/lipid interface because approximately 50% of 4′-propylpuerarin is present as the anion, whereas only 0.5% of 7-propylpuerarin is present as the anion. In contrast, penetration of the undissociated phenolic group into the lipid phase, more significant for 7-propylpuerarin than for 4′-propylpuerarin according to the calculated water/lipid partition coefficients, becomes important for the chain-breaking action in lipid oxidation of the puerarin derivatives as models for (iso)flavonoids and their glycosides.

Hydroxyl radical reacts readily with β-carotene following submicrosecond laser photolysis of N-hydroxypyridine-2(1H)-thione (N-HPT) as a “photo-Fenton” reagent generating hydroxyl and thiyl radicals in acetonitrile:tetrahydrofuran (4:1, v/v) solution. On the basis of spectral evidence, and supported by kinetic considerations and thermodynamic calculations, a short-lived transient species, detected by time-resolved absorption spectroscopy with an absorption maximum at ∼750 nm and a lifetime of ∼150 ns at 25 °C under anaerobic conditions, is suggested to be the long-sought neutral β-carotene radical formed by hydrogen-atom abstraction. The transient spectrum is different from the spectra of the β-carotene radical cation (∼1000 nm absorption maximum with a millisecond lifetime), the β-carotene radical adducts (∼520 nm, several microsecond lifetime), the β-carotene radical cation ion pair (∼750 nm, several hundred microsecond lifetime), and the β-carotene radical anion (∼880 nm, a few tens of microsecond lifetime). In parallel, β-carotene reacts with the thiyl radical to yield a sulfur radical adduct with absorption maximum at ∼520 nm with a lifetime of 3.0 μs. For astaxanthin and canthaxanthin, the reaction with the thiyl radical dominates and the neutral radical is hardly formed in agreement with the less reducing properties of these 4,4′-diketo carotenoids without the reactive 4,4′-hydrogens.