Common bean is a legume important in Mediterranean diet with interesting nutritional food characteristics due to its proteins, fibers and antioxidant activity. There is an increased interest among consumers in foods rich in natural antioxidants for maintaining and improving health. Beyond this, beans are a low-price food and an excellent complement for the population with low income. There are some differences in the phenolic and flavonoid compounds content and antioxidant capacity between accessions of common bean. In this study, 15 traditional Portuguese and 1 Greek accessions of Phaseolus vulgaris L. were analyzed. Total phenols, ortho-diphenols and flavonoid contents were investigated and antioxidant activity were measured by different assays (DPPH, ABTS) which may give a better characterization of this activity.