The radical scavenging activity (RSA) of coffee brews obtained from different types of coffee was studied as a function of the roasting degree and equivalent thermal effect (expressed as C-Tref(z)), and the relative contribution of the phenolic fraction (PF) and non-phenolic fraction (NPF) to the overall RSA was evaluated. Brews extracted from medium roasted coffee showed a higher RSA than those from green coffee due to an increase of the RSA of the NPF upon roasting. The RSA of the NPF increased with increasing roasting degree together with the accumulation of brown coloured Maillard reaction products (MRPs). Brews from dark coffee showed lower RSA than those from medium roasted coffee due to polyphenols degradation which, in turn, caused an RSA depletion not counterbalanced by an increase of the RSA of NPF. The relative contribution of NPF to the overall RSA of the brew is in fact much lower than that of the PF. Roasting processes with similar C-Tref(z) values resulted in the same RSA independent of an average temperature variation from 170 to 190 degrees C and coffee type. The AOA changes in brews from commercial coffee samples (medium and dark roasted) were more dependent on roasting severity than on the type of coffee. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.