Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is a potent antioxidant commonly found in food preservatives. Common products containing BHA include potato chips, fried foods, meat, nut products, chewing gum, butter, sweets, condiments, beverages, and much more. It is used to prevent the oxidation of oils and fats within these foods, which is a main cause of food spoilage. BHA works by a process called scavenging free radicals, which is where BHA attacks oxygen molecules and prevents the oxidation of oils and fats in food.
Although BHA can be beneficial for food preservation, consuming large quantities of BHA can be hazardous. BHA, when consumed, binds to and gets absorbed by cells in the body. Researchers have tested the affects of BHA on humans and other animals. When tested in small rodents, large amounts of BHA caused cancer in their forestomachs. Although the digestive system of humans does not contain a forestomach, squamous and epithelial cells make up other portions of the human digestive tract. Further research has also shown that chronic exposure to BHA may cause hyperplastic changes in the esophagus and stomach of humans. However, this application is not conclusive with lower doses of BHA.
The European Comission on Endocrine Disruption linked long term consumption of products containing BHA to disteurbances in hormonal function, and the International Agency for Research for Cancer labeled BHA as a possible carcinogen.
Using 1.9 Million molecules provided by the ChemBLDB, we analyzed similar molecules to find alternatives. Using molecular fingerprinting and rdkit for python, we were able to fingerprint each molecule and do a molecular comparsion between BHA. Using this, we created a list of 100 potential alternatives to BHA which could be used as an alternative.