Scavenging of chlorpromazine cation radical by ascorbic acid or glutathione

The report presented here demonstrates that scavenging of chlorpromazine cation radical (an absorption maximum = 530 nm) by ascorbic acid or glutathione can be kinetically and stoichiometrically analyzed at pH 1.5 but not at pH 3.0 and 6.0 using a conventional absorption spectrophotometer. The cation radical decays spontaneously about 10 and 200 times faster at pH 3.0 and 6.0, respectively, than at pH 1.5. At pH 1.5, ascorbic acid scavenges the cation radical faster than glutathione does, and the following different scavenging mechanisms are postulated from the above kinetic and stoichiometric analysis. The reaction of the cation radical with ascorbic acid is second order. The ascorbic acid free radical, which decays mainly by dismutation, is generated by the bimolecular reaction. In the case of glutathione, on the other hand, about 70% of the scavenged cation radical disappears through free radical chain reactions that glutathione thiol anion and glutathione free radical probably initiate. The remaining (about 30%) disappears by conjugation with glutathione. It may be due to relative nonreactivity of ascorbic acid free radical that free radical chain reactions, found commonly in radical chemistry, do not occur in the scavenging reaction by ascorbic acid. Based on the above results, the physiological scavenging mechanisms of the cation radical by the two reducing substances are discussed briefly.