AUTHENTICATION OF SOME COMMERCIAL TEAS IN ILORIN, NORTH-CENTRAL, NIGERIA

Abstract

Adulteration and substitution of herbal drugs are trending issue in the herbal industry, posing a serious threat to commercial natural product research. Anatomical and chemical studies were carried out on Camellia sinensis and 6 commercial tea samples using chemical maceration technique (C-tea, L-tea, T-tea, H-tea, N-tea and A-tea). C. sinensis has hypostomatic leaves with paracytic and anomocytic stomatal complex types and thick-cell wall. The plant also possessed non-glandular unicellular trichomes. The anticlinal wall pattern was straight and rectangular, and it is undulating on the adaxial surface. Anatomically, C-tea has paracytic and pericytic stomatal complex types and unicellular non-glandular and multicellular glandular trichomes. L-tea has paracytic and anomocytic with unicellular glandular and multicellular non glandular trichomes. Paracytic, polocytic and anisocytic stomatal complex types with unicellular glandular and multicellular non-glandular trichomes were observed in T-tea. Occurrence of paracytic and anomocytic stomata was observed in H-tea; paracytic and tetracytic stomata were present in N-tea while paracytic stomata were observed in A-tea with unicellular glandular trichomes. The chemical tests shown that Prussian blue was present in three commercial samples of black tea and turmeric was present in two commercial green tea samples. Anatomical studies revealed that four of the selected commercial tea samples shown traces of adulteration.