Should the in vitro colorimetric assays in antioxidant and lipid oxidation evaluation be abandoned?: A critical review focusing on bioactive molecule screening assays in in vitro and in vivo models

Abstract

Increasing evidence has proven the potent antioxidative effectiveness of bioactives in natural products for preventing/suppressing chronic diseases. In this connection, the development of efficient methods that are suitable to screen bioactives in vitro and in vivo tests has taken place.  Thus, a variety of assays have been used in the extraction of bioactives, testing of their antioxidant potential in both in vitro and in vivo model, and evaluating lipid oxidation are comprehensively discussed here. This review mainly focuses on the principle and the use of individual assays in both in vitro and in vivo models. Given that induvial assays have pros and cons due to the discrepancy in the reaction environment and applied biological system, application to the various assays in order to complement the drawbacks of each assay is highly recommended to obtain the reasonable information from experimental trials.