Differences in quality parameters between types of commercial tea from Argentina

Ana Eugenia Thea,María Antonia Lloret,Miguel Eduardo Schmalko,Luis Alberto Brumovsky

doi:10.7455/ijfs/1.2.2012.a7

Ana Eugenia Thea, María Antonia Lloret + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.7455/ijfs/1.2.2012.a7

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Abstract

To determine differences in quality parameters between different types of tea elaborated in Argentina, water extract, crude fibre, caffeine, total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity, sorption isotherms and colour parameters (L, a, b) were determined. Fifty-one industrial samples of commercially available teas including green tea, semifermented tea, black tea and black tea sub-product (BTSP) were used for this study.Water extract contents were significantly higher in black tea and green tea (40.3% and 40.7% w/w, respectively), while semifermented tea and BTSP showed higher levels of crude fibre (22.3% and 20.4% w/w, respectively). Caffeine contents of black teas (2.7% w/w) were significantly higher than in the other types of tea. Green teas revealed the highest concentrations of phenolic compounds and the major antioxidant activities (14.9 g GAE/100g dm and 30.0 g AAE/100g dm, respectively). The results also highlighted significant differences (p<0.05) in colour values between the different types of tea.

Highlights

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L) O
The water extract of tea consists of phenolic compounds, sugars, amino acids and many minor soluble substances, such as minerals and pigments (Yao et al, 2006).In this study, the water extract of twenty eight black teas ranged from 29.5% to 47.1% (w/w), with a mean of 40.3% of the dry mass (Table 1)
The water extract of eleven black tea sub-product (BTSP) samples showed an average of 33.3% (w/w) (Table 1), which is considerably lower than the water extract content found in black and green tea samples (p

Summary

Introduction

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L) O. Kuntze) is cultivated all over the world and each zone of growing produces a product with differential qualities as a result of climate and edaphic site conditions, farming techniques and industrialization (Parra, 2007; Saito et al, 2007). Tea production remained a minor activity up until 1951 when the Argentine government banned imported tea. This increased the demand for local tea and more farmers began to plant it, so that at the end of the decade Argentina was able to export tea (Parra, 2007; Prat Kricun & De Bernardi, 2002).

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