ELECTROCHEMICAL BEHAVIOR OF GENISTEIN AND ITS POLAROGRAPHIC DETERMINATION IN SOYBEANS

The polarographic behavior of genistein was investigated by various electrochemical techniques. In acidic media, an irreversible reduction process involving two electrons and one proton takes place. The peak current was proportional to the concentration of genistein in the range 2 × 10-7 – 5 × 10-5 mol·dm-3 at pH 1.0, with a relative standard deviation of 1.9% and detection limit of 8 × 10-8 mol·dm-5. An extraction procedure was employed for the determination of genistein contained in soybean and the method was validated by parallel determination using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. In particular, its scavenging effect on superoxide anion radical was studied to attribute to explain its peculiar biological effects.