Cardenas Rodriguez, N; Coballase Urrutia, E; Huerta Gertrudis, B; Pedraza Chaverri, J; Barragan Mejia, G
Fulvic acid (FA) is a class of compound including Mimic
substances together with humic acid and humin. It is formed through the degradation of organic
substances by chemical and biological process. FA consists fa mixture of closely related complex
aromatic polymers with the presence of aromatic rings, phenolic hydroxyl, ketone carbonyl,
quinone carbonyl, carboxyl and alkoxyl groups. The possible application of coal-derived FA as an
antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory property has been reported. Actually, it is used as a soil
supplement in agriculture and as a human nutritional supplement. In this work, we examined, for
the first time, the scavenging activity of biosynthesized fulvic acid in comparison with
reference compounds. It was evaluated the in vitro superoxide (O-2(center dot)), hypochlorous
acid (HOCl), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxyl radical (OH center dot), peroxynitrite (ONOO) and
singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) scavenging capacity of the fulvic acid synthesized from a compost
elaborated with poultry manure by spectrophotometric methods. The IC50 (mg/ml) values were as
follows: 4.97 +/- 0.02, 1.56 +/- 0.06, 1.39 +/- 0.03, 2.5 +/- 0.04, 5.73 +/- 0.05 and 3.54 +/-
0.03 for O-2(center dot), HOCl, H2O2, OH center dot, ONOO and O-1(2), respectively. FA displays a
scavenging activity compared with the reference compounds although it was less efficient than
nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), ascorbic acid, pyruvate, dimethylthiourea (DMTU), penicillamine
and glutathione (GSH) for O-2(center dot), HOCl, H2O2, OH center dot, ONOO and O-1(2),
respectively. The antioxidant properties of FA partially support the health beneficial properties
of this compound; and therefore, the FA is a good candidate to be used in pharmaceutical or food
industries as in accessible source of natural antioxidants.