Several oat brans (crunchy oat bran, oat bran alone, and oat breakfast cereal) and wheat brans(wheat bran alone, wheat bran powder, wheat bran with malt flavor, bran breakfast cereal, tablet ofbran, and tablet of bran with cellulose) used as dietary fiber supplements by consumers were evaluatedas alternative antioxidant sources (i) in the normal human consumer, preventing disease and promotinghealth, and (ii) in food processing, preserving oxidative alterations. Products containing wheat branexhibited higher peroxyl radical scavenging effectiveness than those with oat bran. Wheat bran powderwas the best hydroxyl radical (OH
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) scavenger. In terms of hydrogen peroxide (H
2O
2) scavenging,wheat bran alone was the most effective, while crunchy oat bran, oat bran alone, and oat breakfastcereal did not scavenge H
2O
2. The shelf life of fats (obtained by the Rancimat method for butter)increased most in the presence of crunchy oat bran. When the antioxidant activity during 28 days ofstorage was measured by the linoleic acid assay, all of the oat and wheat bran samples analyzedshowed very good antioxidant activities. The Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) assaywas used to provide a ranking order of antioxidant activity. The wheat bran results for TEAC (6 min),in decreasing order, were wheat bran powder > wheat bran with malt flavor
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wheat bran alone
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bran breakfast cereal > tablet of bran > tablet of bran with cellulose. The products made with oatbran showed lower TEAC values. In general, avenanthramide showed a higher antioxidant level thaneach of the following typical cereal components: ferulic acid, gentisic acid,
p-hydroxybenzoic acid,protocatechuic acid, syringic acid, vanillic acid, vanillin, and phytic acid.Keywords: Antioxidant; wheat; oat; bran