Determination of total anthocyanins content Anthocyanin contents of two coloured rice cultivars were extracted according to Jing and Giusti [11] with minor modifications. One gram of each rice sample was ground and 25 ml of 70% aqueous acetone was added. The mixture was stirred for 20 minutes and filtered by Whatman No.1 filter paper. The pellet was re-extracted with 10 ml of 70% acetone until the solution was colourless. The acetone solvent was evaporated by a rotary evaporator at 40°C under vacuum. The monomeric anthocyanin content was measured by the pH differential method and the absorbency of the extract was measured at wavelengths of 510 nm and 700 nm using a spectrophotometer (UV-1601, SHIMADZU) and was calculated as cyanidin 3-glucoside. The total anthocyanin content was expressed in mg/100g dry weight basis