Methods for Determining the Antioxidant Activity: A Review

Antioxidants are considered as important bioactive compounds on account of many health benefits along withtheir pivotal role in delaying oxidative rancidity of numerous foods. Consequently, the requirement of a standard assayis very important in order to compare the results of different laboratories and validation of the conclusion. This reviewarticle explains the scientific basis of numerous different methods for determining antioxidant activity. Advantagesand disadvantages of these methods have been taken into consideration along with either the mechanism or the modeof action for each. Comparative assessment using different antioxidant evaluation methods strongly suggests that notall the adopted methods are highly related and thereby antioxidant capacity should be evaluated by more than onemethod. Moreover, application of antioxidant assays in food analysis have been also reviewed briefly.