Antioxidant and process for producing the same

摘要

It is intended to provide a method of practically obtaining a natural antioxidant, which gives a sense of security to consumers when added to foods, by efficiently taking out an antioxidant component from soybeans. It is confirmed that a hot water extract obtained by extracting a soybean seeds with hot water at a high temperature exceeding 100° C. under weakly acidic conditions has an antioxidant effect. A low-molecular weight fraction of this hot water extract is further fractionated by taking advantage of a difference in solubility in a water-containing organic solvent or using an appropriate filter suitable for the molecular weight size to thereby efficiently give a highly antioxidant fraction.