Study on Antioxidant Mechanism of Carnosine, Alanine and Histidine

Carnosine is a dipeptide(β-Ala-L-His)found in skeletal muscle and brain tissue of vertebrates.To determine the correlation between its structure and antioxidant properties,carnosine,β-alanine and L-histidine were analyzed.The scavenging ability on DPPH radical and the inhibitory effect on BSA oxidation were tested.The results illustrated that carnosine significantly scavenged DPPH radical(P0.01);histidine had much weaker ability than carnosine but alanine had no role on DPPH.Carnosine significantly decreased the protein carbonyl formation(P0.01);alanine showed low inhibitory effect among the compounds,but the effects of histidine as the concentration of 10,20,50mmol·L-1 were better than carnosine.