Synthetic catalytic free radical scavengers useful as antioxidants for prevention and therapy of disease

Claim 1

A pharmaceutical composition comprising a therapeutically effective dose of an antioxidant salen-metal complex in a pharmaceutically acceptable form, wherein the antioxidant salen-metal complex has the structural formula ##STR15## wherein M is manganese; A is H or halogen; n is 0, 4, 5, or 6, wherein Cn is absent if n=0 and is a saturated hydrocarbon chain if n=4, 5, or 6; R 1 and R 4 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, phenyl, lower alkoxy, and lower fatty acid esters; X 1 and X 3 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, lower alkyl, amine, lower alkylamino, and halogen; X 2 and X 4 are H; Y 1 and Y 4 are independently selected from the group consisting of H, lower alkyl, halogen, and lower alkoxy; Y 2 , Y 3 , Y 5 and Y 6 are H; and all remaining substituent positions are H.