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In this study, different Polish cultivars of blue-berried honeysuckles (Lonicera caerulea L.), wild and bog bilberry, were analyzed for bioactive compounds. The chemical properties verified included composition of anthocyanins and other polyphenols, antioxidant activity, and profiles of antioxidants by HPLC postcolumn derivatization or TLC. The antioxidant activities of different blue-berried honeysuckle cultivars were similar to that of wild-growing bilberries (ranging from 170 to 417 μmol TE/g dm in ABTS and from 93 to 166 μmol TE/g dm in DPPH and Folin-Ciocalteu tests). The major anthocyanin in the blue-berried honeysuckle was cyanidin-3-glucoside, which constituted 84-92% of the total anthocyanins. The TLC and HPLC postcolumn antioxidant profiles indicated that anthocyanins are the major antioxidants in all berries studied. Wild berries and the cultivars of the blue-berried honeysuckles are also a similar source of such minerals as K, Mg, and Ca.

Redox homeostasis involves factors that ensure proper function of cells. The excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) leads to oxidative stress and increased risk of oxidative damage to cellular components. In contrast, upon reductive stress, insufficient ROS abundance may result in faulty cell signalling. It may be expected that dietary antioxidants, depending on their standard reduction potentials (E°), will affect both scenarios. In our study, for the first time, we systematically tested the relationship among E°, chemical properties, and biological effects in HT29 cells for a series of structurally different catechins and a major endogenous antioxidant – glutathione (GSH), at both physiological and dietary concentrations. Among chemical antioxidant activity tests, the strongest correlation with E° was seen using a DPPH assay. The values of E° were also highly correlated with cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) values determined in HT29 cells. Our results indicated that physiological concentrations (1–10 µM) of tested catechins stabilized the redox status of cells, which was not exhibited at higher concentrations. This stabilization of redox homeostasis was mirrored by constant, dose and E° independent CAA values, uninhibited growth of HT29 cells, modulation of hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA damage, as well as effects at the genomic level, where either up-regulation of three redox-related genes (ALB, CCL5, and HSPA1A) out of 84 in the array (1 µM) or no effect (10 µM) was observed for catechins. Higher catechin concentrations (over 10 µM) increased CAA values in a dose- and E°-dependent manner, caused cell growth inhibition, but surprisingly did not protect HT29 cells against reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced DNA fragmentation. In conclusion, dose-dependent effects of dietary antioxidants and biological functions potentially modulated by them may become deregulated upon exposure to excessive doses.

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