The superoxide and hydroxyl radicals are considered to be a highly potent oxidant and can react with all biomolecules. DPPH is a stable free radical and accepts an electron or hydrogen radical to become a stable diamagnetic molecule. The scavenging activity of the extracted exopolysaccharides was determined by hydroxyl, DPPH and super oxide radical scavenging activity. The free radical scavenging activity of EPS increased with increasing concentration. The scavenging ability was found to be 63.5, 77.3 and 38.4% for DPPH, superoxide and hydroxyl radicals respectively at a concentration of 8 mg/ml. The extracted EPS exhibited equal scavenging activity compared to the known standard ascorbic acid. The EPS of Lactobacillus. lactis subsp. lactis 12 showed antioxidant activity equal to that of the control ascorbic acid. Kodali
and Sen reported the EPS of probiotic strain B. coagulans Rk-02 to have strong super oxide and hydroxyl radical activity in vitro.