No abstract

Antioxidative activity was measuredon extracts of rosemary {Rosmarinusofficinalis L.), one of the herb spices belongs to the Family Labiatae, using different solvents. Strong activity was observed in the weakly acidic fraction of the «-hexane extract, which was further fractionated and purified to afford several active compounds. An ordorless and colorless compound, named rosmanol, showed high antioxidative activity in both lard and linoleic acid, and particularly in lard, was about four times more active than synthetic antioxidants, such as BHT and BHA.Furthermore, the antioxidant activities of the derivatives of rosmanol and carnosol were measured by the ferric thiocyanate method and the TBAmethod, to observe the correlation between chemical structure and activity as an antioxidant.

Starch granules were isolated from polished grains of rice plants (Oriza sativa L.) grown under controlled temperature conditions. Distribution of isoamylase‐debranched starch materials and unit chain‐length of amylopectin were examined by gel‐filtration on columns. Higher environment temperature decreases amylose concentration in endosperm starches of Japanese rice cultivars. The amylose concentration in the endosperm starch is determined by the environment temperature 5 – 15 days after heading. Interestingly, the higher environment temperature seemed to increase the amount of long B chains and decrease that of short chains of amylopectin. The effect of environment temperature on pasting characteristics of starch by DSC, starch‐granule digestibility by amylases and X‐ray diffractograms of starch was also investigated.