Self-assembling and antioxidant activity of some vitamin C derivatives

Vitamin C behaves as a very powerful radical scavenger in aqueous media and can be successfully used to prevent peroxidation of important unsaturated organic molecules. Its hydrophobic derivatives (i.e. alkyl-esters and ethers) perform the same antioxidant activity in self-assembled structures such as micelles and microemulsion systems. In this work the study on the micellar properties obtained from these hydrophobic derivatives by viscosity, light-scattering, and small-angle neutron-scattering (SANS) experiments, and a comparison between the antioxidant activity of the vitamin C derivatives and the most common natural antioxidants are reported. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.