Enhancement and inhibition of luminol chemiluminescence by phenolic acids

We explored the behaviour of a series of phenolic acids used as enhancers or inhibitors of luminol chemiluminescence by three different methods to determine if behaviour was associated with phenolic acid structure and redox character. All the phenolic acids inhibited chemiluminescence when hexacyanoferrate (III) was reacted with the phenolic acids before adding luminol. The redox character of these compounds was clearly related to structure. When hexacyanoferrate(III)-luminol-O2 chemiluminescence was initiated by phenolic acid-luminol mixtures some phenolic acids behaved as enhancers of chemiluminescence, and others as inhibitors. We propose a mechanism to explain these findings. We found direct relationships between the redox character of the phenolic acids and the enhancement or inhibition of the chemiluminescence of the luminol-H2O2-peroxidase system and we propose mechanism to explain these phenomena.