Total antioxidant capacity: appraisal of a concept
Open accessAbstract
In this contribution, I discuss the applicability of total antioxidant capacity (TAC) data obtained from plasma to human health issues and the use of TAC data for dietary items in epidemiological applications. Against the background of knowledge that major antioxidant defense is enzymatic, the use of the term "total" is not appropriate. Because dietary phytochemicals undergo uptake and metabolism, extrapolation to health effects requires direct molecular information, not a global parameter that uses an arbitrarily selected prooxidant source. Suitable alternatives are given in measuring functional biomarkers (surrogate endpoints). Although using TAC may be helpful in comparing different food items, the extrapolation to their contribution of antioxidant defense in vivo and, further, to health issues, should be discouraged, with the possible exception of the gastrointestinal tract. This is of particular importance because dietary phytochemicals and other small molecules have nonantioxidant activities. Direct assay of urate, ascorbate, and tocopherol, the major small-molecule contributors to TAC, is recommended.
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Many assays in the sports science literature are fundamentally ill suited to deciphering whether a compound with antioxidant activity is actually acting as an antioxidant.
“Unfortunately, many of the assays in the sports science literature merely serve to create confusion as they are fundamentally ill suited to deciphering whether a compound with antioxidant activity is actually acting as an antioxidant.”
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The concept of "total antioxidant capacity" has serious limitations and cannot be simply transferred to in vivo conditions.
“The concept of “total antioxidant capacity” has serious limitations and cannot be simply transferred to in vivo conditions (Sies 2007).”
From Reactive Oxygen Species, Toxicity, Oxidative Stress, and Antioxidants: Chronic Diseases and Aging (2023) · cites this paper as Sies 2007
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- Authors
- Sies, H.
- Affiliations
- Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Sies, Helmut
- ORCID
- Sies, Helmut
- Venue
- The Journal of Nutrition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2007-06
- Volume
- 137
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1493-1495
- ISSN
- 0022-3166 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1895964898
- Cited by
- 308
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 9.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Biochemistry › Antioxidant Activity and Oxidative Stress
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Biochemistry › Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activities
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Rehabilitation › Exercise and Physiological Responses
- Keywords
- total antioxidant capacity, plasma antioxidant capacity, dietary phytochemicals, antioxidant defense, functional markers, surrogate endpoints, uric acid, vitamin C, tocopherols, gastrointestinal tract
- MeSH terms
- Antioxidants, Diet, Humans, Molecular Biology
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