Assessing redox potential of a native tree from the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest: a successful evaluation of oxidative stress associated to a new power generation source of an oil refinery.

The antioxidant responses in saplings of Tibouchina pulchra (a native tree from the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest) exposed around an oil refinery in the city of Cubatão (SE Brazil), varied during the exchange of its power generation source, from boilers fueled with oil to a thermoelectric fueled with natural gas. The redox potential changed in response to an interaction of air pollution and meteorological parameters, indicating that the pro-oxidant/antioxidant balance was not reached after the exchange of the power generation system. The gain in environmental quality in the region was not achieved as expected due the technological modernization, at least relative to oxidative stressors. These conclusions were based on results of analyses of enzymatic antioxidants: superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR); non-enzymatic antioxidants: reduced, oxidized and total ascorbic acid (AsA, DHA, totAA) and glutathione (GSH, GSSG, totG), their redox state (AsA/totAA and GSH/totG) and an indicator of lipid peroxidation (MDA). We also applied exploratory multivariate statistics in order to verify if the temporal sequence of changes in the plant redox capacity coincided with changes in the profile of air pollution, climatic conditions or with their interactions and if the environmental benefits that would supposedly be promoted by the mentioned exchange of power generation system were achieved in the region.