The present study was designed for the improvement of routine measurement of superoxide and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities utilized by a microplate reader. Superoxide radical scavenging activity by the ascorbic acid, which is a well-known superoxide scavenger, was determined in a dose-dependent manner. Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity by the thiourea, which is a well-known hydroxyl radical scavenger, was also well detected in a dose-dependent manner. Our results suggest that the use of microplate reader to assay the superoxide and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities improves the accuracy of data and enables the use of much smaller amounts of samples and/or reagents, with much simpler experimental procedure. Therefore, These methods appear to be suitable for screening of superoxide and hydroxyl radical scavenging activities in both the plant medicinal extracts and the isolated compounds.