Are dietary carotenoids beneficial? Reactions of carotenoids with oxy-radicals and singlet oxygen

Abstract

Carotenoids play diverse roles in biology and medicine. Both the quenching of singlet oxygen (energy transfer) and interaction with oxy-radicals (electron transfer, H-atom transfer and addition reactions) are key processes in understanding many of these roles. Much previous work in ‘simple’ solvents is reviewed and new results in cell membrane models are presented. The possible consequences of using carotenoids as dietary supplements are discussed.