Total phenolic content, total anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity were analyzed from rice samples collected in Korea, Japan and China. The results showed that the total phenolic content and free-radical scavenging activity differed significantly in these rice lines. The correlation between content and activity was subsequently investigated. The results showed that in black rice, anthocyanin was the major phenolic component and that both phenolic content and anthocyanin content were closely correlated with free-radical scavenging activity. Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography (RP-HPLC) data showed that cyanidin-3-O-glucoside and peonidin-3-O-glucoside composed about 90% of the total anthocyanin content in black rice and in red rice. In the red rice extract, the total phenolic content produced a high correlation coefficient with antioxidant activity but correlated very poorly with the total anthocyanin content. The OD458 and the OD500 values which represent the proanthocyanidin content of the rice extract, produced high correlation coefficients with antioxidant activity and total phenolic content. These results suggest that the OD458 and the OD500 values can be used to evaluate the quality of red rice. In addition, based on the data obtained, a competitive accumulation model of anthocyanin and proanthocyanidin in black and red rice was proposed.