I'm reading Clostridium ,which is an anaerobic bacteria in my microbiology text and it says,
of more importance than the absence of oxygen is the provision of a sufficiently low redox potential in the medium. Third can be achieved by adding unsaturated fatty acids, ascorbic acid, glutathione, cysteine, etc.
Why? Do they reduce oxygen free radicals or something? Well, are these present in Clostridium's natural habitat?