## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Activities  
The Antioxidant activity of the water and 80% ethanol extracts of Korean WS and NS germinated for 7, 9, and 11 days was measured in terms of DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activities and reducing power. DPPH radical scavenging activity of water and 80% ethanol extracts of both the sprouts are presented in Figure 2A. The activities of water and 80% ethanol extracts increased with germination time in both wheat sprouts, and the activities of 80% ethanol extracts were significantly higher than those of water extracts in each wheat sprout. DPPH radical scavenging activity of both extracts was higher in WS than in NS until 9 days of germination, but were higher in NS at 11 days of germination. DPPH radical scavenging activity has been shown to increase with germination until 72 h in the 80% methanol extracts of wheat grains [27], and germination for 110 h increased this activity more than two times compared to wheat grains [28], and these results are concordant with the results of this study.  
ABTS radical scavenging activity of the extracts of WS and NS is presented in Figure 2B. The activities of water and 80% ethanol extracts also increased with germination time, and the activities of 80% ethanol extracts were significantly higher than those of the water extracts, similar to that of DPPH radical scavenging activity. ABTS radical scavenging activity was lower in the water extracts of WS germinated for 9 days and higher in the 80% ethanol extracts of WS germinated for 7 days than those of NS; however, other extracts did not show such significant differences between WS and NS. In a previous study, ABTS radical scavenging activities of 80% methanol extract of wheat sprout was also found to be increased with germination until 120 h, although there was a reduction at 72 h [29]. The activity of the 70% ethanol extract of wheat germinated for 3 days was higher than that of the wheat grain [30].  
The reducing powers of the extracts of WS and NS is presented in Figure 2C. The reducing power of the extracts increased with germination time, similar to the radical scavenging activities. The powers of 80% ethanol extracts were similar to those of water extracts in WS, but the activities of 80% ethanol extracts were higher than those of the water extracts of NS after 9 days of germination. Both extracts of WS exhibited higher reducing powers than those of NS at 7 days of germination, and there was no significant difference observed after 9 days. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [27] reported that the reducing power of 80% methanol extracts of wheat grains increased with germination until 72 h, as also observed in this study.  
The radical scavenging activity and reducing power are the main antioxidant mechanisms of phenolic compounds and flavonoids, which are known as the main plant antioxidants. The radical scavenging activity was determined through measuring the reduction of free or peroxide radicals produced during the oxidation process while the reducing power through the reduction of metal ions [31]. Although germination is known to be effective process to improve the antioxidant activity of grains, it is not applicable to all grains. Total phenolic content and radical scavenging activity were found to be similar before and after germination in oat and brown rice, and reduced after germination in buckwheat, which is contrary to the results in wheat [23]. Germination is an effective method to increase the antioxidant activities of both waxy and normal wheat grains, but WS usually exhibited higher activity than NS until 9 days of germination. This means that WS could be used as a better food material for antioxidant activity at the early stages of germination than NS.