Antioxidant Activities in Germinated and Non-germinated Seeds of Korean Weedy Rice

Weedy rice (Oryza sativa) is a semi-wild rice grown in paddy fields and is more adapted to the environment than cultivated rice. Therefore, it is expected that the seeds of weedy rice might contain some chemicals related to its environmental adaptation, such as antioxidants, which may be useful for nutritional and medicinal purposes. This study was carried out to investigate the antioxidant activities of weedy rice compared to a Korean-bred rice cultivar, Sindongjin (SDJ), and to screen lines that show higher antioxidant activity in 199 accessions of weedy rice germplasm collected in Korea. DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity ranged from 31.0 to 91.7%, with an average of 82.5%, and 19 accessions that showed more than 91% antioxidant activity were selected. The 19 accessions were re-screened against non-germinated brown rice (BR) and germinated brown rice (GBR) using four assays, total phenol determination, DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS radical scavenging, and reducing power activities. The results showed that accession 'WD3' had the highest antioxidant capacity in both BR and GBR, suggesting that WD3 is a promising potential source of antioxidants and could be developed as a potentially functional substance material.