Antioxidant activity of black rice and grains

In this study, the comparison of antioxidative effect of the methanol (MeOH) extracts from grains were investigated in vitro radical scavenging system. Ten grains (black rice, rice, barley, wheat, millet, sorghum, glutinous millet, buckwheat, phellines linteus rice and brown rice) were extracted with MeOH. Among the MeOH extracts of grains, sorghum and black rice showed effective scavenging activities of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. The IC50 values of sorghum and black rice were 47.4 ㎍/mL and 50.6 ㎍/mL, respectively. In addition, black rice also exerted the strongest activities on hydroxyl radical (?OH) scavenging activity. Furthermore, the MeOH extracts of black rice showed effective and dose dependant scavenging activities of DPPH radical and ?OH. These results indicated that black rice showed strong free radical scavenging activity. It suggested that black rice could be a promising natural antioxidant against free radical-induced oxidative damage.