{"doi":"10.1111/j.1432-1033.1974.tb03714.x","title":"Involvement of the Superoxide Anion Radical in the Autoxidation of Pyrogallol and a Convenient Assay for Superoxide Dismutase","abstract":"<jats:p>The autoxidation of pyrogallol was investigated in the presence of EDTA in the pH range 7.9–10.6.</jats:p><jats:p>The rate of autoxidation increases with increasing pH. At pH 7.9 the reaction is inhibited to 99% by superoxide dismutase, indicating an almost total dependence on the participation of the superoxide anion radical, O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>·<jats:sup>−</jats:sup>, in the reaction. Up to pH 9.1 the reaction is still inhibited to over 90% by superoxide dismutase, but at higher alkalinity, O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>·<jats:sup>−</jats:sup> ‐independent mechanisms rapidly become dominant.</jats:p><jats:p>Catalase has no effect on the autoxidation but decreases the oxygen consumption by half, showing that H<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> is the stable product of oxygen and that H<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> is not involved in the autoxidation mechanism.</jats:p><jats:p>A simple and rapid method for the assay of superoxide dismutase is described, based on the ability of the enzyme to inhibit the autoxidation of pyrogallol.</jats:p><jats:p>A plausible explanation is given for the non‐competitive part of the inhibition of catechol <jats:italic>O</jats:italic>‐methyltransferase brought about by pyrogallol.</jats:p>","journal":"European Journal of Biochemistry","year":1974,"id":7698,"datarank":23.98363373211951,"base_score":9.229750765496005,"endowment":9.229750765496005,"self_citation_contribution":1.384462614824401,"citation_network_contribution":22.59917111729511,"self_endowment_contribution":1.384462614824401,"citer_contribution":22.59917111729511,"corpus_percentile":96.8,"corpus_rank":1107,"citation_count":10195,"citer_count":198,"citers_with_citation_signal":198,"citers_with_endowment":198,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"1974-09-01","authors":[{"id":69359,"name":"Gudrun MARKLUND","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":69360,"name":"Stefan L. Marklund","orcid":"0000-0002-3270-2854","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":69358,"name":"Stefan MARKLUND","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":30,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}