The use of antioxidant extracts obtained from natural products is highly relevant in the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The mathematical analysis of the antioxidant extraction could contribute to a better understanding of the process and is fundamental for optimization tasks. However, the high complexity of natural matrixes makes modeling difficult. The main aim of this work was to model the antioxidant extraction process from grape stalk in order to quantify the influence of the previous drying operation on extraction kinetics. The antioxidant extraction kinetics for freeze dried and hot air dried samples at several temperatures (40, 55, 70, 85, 100 and 115 degrees C) were carried out, using the FRAP method to measure the antioxidant capacity in the extracts. A diffusion model was developed that took significant external resistance as well as the complex geometry of grape stalk into consideration. From the modeling results, the influence of the drying conditions on the antioxidant concentration of the dry stalk, the antioxidant effective diffusivity and the mass transfer coefficient were identified. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.