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This study was aimed at evaluating the antioxidant activity of a commercial rosemary extract and the active constituents carnosol, carnosic acid, and rosmarinic acid, in inhibiting the formation and decomposition of hydroperoxides in tocopherol-stripped corn oil and in the corresponding corn oilin-water emulsions. In bulk corn oil, the rosemary extract, carnosic acid, rosmarinic acid, and R-tocopherol were significantly more active than carnosol. In contrast, in corn oil-in-water emulsion, the rosemary compounds were less active than in bulk oil, and the rosemary extract, carnosic acid, carnosol, and R-tocopherol were more active than rosmarinic acid. Similar results were obtained in corn oil-in-water phosphate buffer emulsion at pH 5, but R-tocopherol was less active. Carnosol and carnosic acid were much more active antioxidants in corn oil-in-water emulsions buffered at pH 4 and 5 than at pH 7. The decreased antioxidant activity of the polar hydrophilic rosemary compounds in the emulsion system may be explained by their interfacial partitioning into the water, thus becoming less protective than in the bulk oil system. The effect of pH may be related to the stability of the rosemary antioxidants.

1. Carnosol and carnosic acid have been suggested to account for over 90% of the antioxidant properties of rosemary extract. 2. Purified carnosol and carnosic acid are powerful inhibitors of lipid peroxidation in microsomal and liposomal systems, more effective than propyl gallate. 3. Carnosol and carnosic acid are good scavengers of peroxyl radicals (CCl3O2.) generated by pulse radiolysis, with calculated rate constants of 1-3 x 10(6) M-1 s-1 and 2.7 x 10(7) M-1 s-1 respectively. 4. Carnosic acid reacted with HOCl in such a way as to protect the protein alpha 1-antiproteinase against inactivation. 5. Both carnosol and carnosic acid stimulated DNA damage in the bleomycin assay but they scavenged hydroxyl radicals in the deoxyribose assay. The calculated rate constants for reaction with .OH in the deoxyribose system for carnosol and carnosic acid were 8.7 x 10(10) M-1 s-1 and 5.9 x 10(10) M-1 s-1 respectively. 6. Carnosic acid appears to scavenge H2O2, but it could also act as a substrate for the peroxidase system. 7. Carnosic acid and carnosol reduce cytochrome c but with a rate constant significantly lower than that of O2(-.).