| Summary: | Free radicals of myoglobins were measured at room temperature with an ESR spectrometer equipped with a flow apparatus. When horse heart MetMb was mixed with an equimolar amount of ethyl hydroperoxide (EtOOH), a well resolved ESR spectrum with 6 lines and a shoulder was observed. It reached a maximum in a few seconds and decayed with a half-life of about 10 s when the final concentrations of MetMb and EtOOH were 200 μM. This decay rate was the same at a MetMb concentration of 50 μM. The maximum molar radical concentration amounted to about half of the total myoglobin. In the case of sperm whale myoglobin, a similar 6-line spectrum reached a maximum in 1 s and decayed with a half-life of a few seconds. In this case, however, a small and poorly resolved doublet spectrum remained, the half-life of which was about 8 mm. An effect of O 2 on the signal decay was evident for horse heart myoglobin, but not for sperm whale myo globin.
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