Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are considered to play an important role in tissue injury that damages DNA, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Increased production of ROS and/or decreased efficiency of antioxidant defense system has been shown to contribute to a number of degenerative processes including cancer and AIDS. Among the various forms of ROS, singlet oxygen (1O2), which is generated predominantly in photosensitization reactions, is of particular physiologic significance because of its selectively long life in aqueous solution, its ability to cross the cell membrane barrier and high reactivity towards biomolecules. In the present study, the 1O2 scavenging potential of Cu(II) has been evaluated by (i) generating 1O2 by photosensitization of rose bengal (RB), (ii) establishing 1O2 quenching with recognized 1O2 scavengers like sodium azide, DABCO and (iii) examining the effect of Cu(II) in scavenging of 1O2. The results revealed that Cu(II) inhibited the rate of 1O2 production by 88%, 68%, 40%, 21% and 10% at a concentration of 10(-2) M, 5 x 10(-3) M, 10(-3) M; 5 x 10(-4) M, and 10(-4) M, respectively. Under similar experimental condition, sodium azide or DABCO at 10(-2) M inhibited the 1O2 production by 86% and 88%, respectively. Other 1O2 generating photosensitizer like hematoporphyrin, riboflavin and methylene blue also produced identical results with Cu(II) but Fe(II), Fe(III), Zn(II) or As(III) did not produce any quenching of 1O2. Presence of a copper binding peptide (Gly-Gly-His) in the reaction system reduced the 1O2 scavenging capacity of Cu(II) by 52-66% depending upon the UV dose. The 1O2 scavenging property of metal ion appears to have an advantage to reduce the oxidative damage of photodynamic reactions in order to prevent ROS-induced toxicity reactions.