<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Substances with antioxidative properties were obtained from an ether extract of<jats:italic>Swertia japonica</jats:italic> Makino. Six active components of the extract were isolated and identified as methylbellidifolin, methylswertianin, swertianin, bellidifolin, norswertianin and desmethylbellidifolin. These six xanthone derivatives were shown to possess different antioxidant activities by chemiluminescent assay. The antioxidative activities of bellidifolin, norswertianin and desmethylbellidifolin were higher than those of butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and α‐tocopherol. On autoxidation of methyl linoleate, bellidifolin had activity similar to that of BHT. On the basis of the data present on antioxidative properties and data reported on the mutagenicities of the xanthones, both activities were shown to give a good correlation.