 RESEARCH
AND DEVELOPMENT
We are sorry but we are unable to publish
specific details of our client R&D projects, which generally
comprise the bulk of our day-to-day work. However
we will shortly be publishing data on two new In-House Projects which we
are in the process of launching. The
first is a
novel, rapid and sensitive antioxidant assay - see below! The
second is a new sensitive
and economical chemiluminescent signal reagent applicable to
both blotting and multiwell immunoassay formats.
Background to
“Antioxidants in Tea” Project
ClifMar Associates
Limited has recently developed an innovative chemical process
for measuring total Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS),
widely referred to as antioxidants, in blood,
foodstuffs and cosmetics and we have applied for a patent for
this work. ClifMar’s invention has been used to develop an
assay to measure antioxidants in human blood. An assay is
an analytical laboratory procedure to determine the presence of
a substance and the amount of that substance in an unknown
sample; in this project it is proposed that the unknown samples
will be teas of the
Camellia sinensis plant.
Standards (calibrators) containing varying but known
amounts of the given antioxidant substance to be measured
are also put through the whole assay process at the same time as
the unknown samples. A Standard (calibrator) is based on, or is
traceable to, a reference material or substance. Because several
standards containing varying but known amounts are used
in the assay, direct comparisons can be made between the varying
responses of the standards and the response of unknown samples
thus allowing quantification of the unknown samples. However, at
this time, there is no universally agreed reference material for
use when measuring antioxidants in teas.
ClifMar now wish to
investigate the technical and commercial feasibility of
antioxidant measurement in food and beverage products with
particular emphasis on optimizing the assay to measure
antioxidants in hot beverages, specifically, teas. Public
awareness of the potential health benefits of antioxidant
intake, especially with regards to fruit, vegetables, juices,
and now supplements, is increasing, yet little is publicized
with respect to the substantially larger potential intake
available from simple hot beverages, especially, tea.
Quantifying these antioxidant levels using a specifically
tailored assay is important in allowing the different tea
manufacturers to compare the amounts of antioxidants in their
own products and also in their competitor’s products. In doing
so the general public will ultimately have a consistent and
“universal” assessment and comparison of the amount of
antioxidants in the tea based products they purchase.
Current “State of
The Art”
Antioxidant testing was
originally developed for crude measurements on food and the
assays were cumbersome, inaccurate and not specific. In addition
the only readily available standard material for calibrating
theses assays were vitamins and most used a vitamin E analogue
called Trolox due to it being water soluble and more stable in
solution than most other vitamins. Although several workers
have modified these original assays or developed new assays they
are mostly based on the original method and suffer from similar
shortcomings i.e. low throughput, poor cross-reactivity with
non-tocopherol type antioxidants and inaccurate results due to
the specific use of Trolox as the standard. When testing teas
Trolox is most inappropriate due to its totally different
structure and molecular size, hydrophobicity and the fact that
it does not occur naturally in teas. These differences lead to
lack of parallelism (differences in reaction in the assays)
between the standard material and the tea samples being tested
and hence inaccurate results. Currently there are no
commercially available antioxidant assays that use an
appropriate standard material for testing teas. Therefore
new research is required to identify and establish an
appropriate “working Gold Standard” for use when
testing teas for antioxidant levels. A “Gold Standard” is an
appropriate reference material similar in structure, molecular
size and reactivity to the unknown material to be tested and
which can be used universally by all workers to allow direct and
consistent comparisons of any research and future commercial
testing.
In order to attain a
“Gold Standard Assay” for tea, it will be necessary for ClifMar
to embark on new research to identify a suitable reference
material and then to create a completely new assay which is
optimized around both the new reference material and tea
samples. We are unable to utilize our existing (clinical) assay
(for blood) because it utilizes Trolox as the calibration
standard – whilst appropriate when testing blood – it is not a
compound which is related to those responsible for the
antioxidant activity of tea.
**** n.b. Commercial inquiries are welcome on both
projects ****
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