Abstract
As a natural and healthy beverage, tea is widely enjoyed; however, the pesticide residues in tea leaves affect the quality and food safety. To develop a highly selective and efficient method for the facile removal of pesticide residues, the subcritical butane extraction (SBE) technique was employed, and three variables involving temperature, time and extraction cycles were studied. The optimum SBE conditions were found to be as follows: extraction temperature 45 °C, extraction time 30 min, number of extraction cycles 1, and in such a condition that the extraction efficiency reached as high as 92%. Further, the catechins, theanine, caffeine and aroma components, which determine the quality of the tea, fluctuated after SBE treatment. Compared with the uncrushed leaves, pesticide residues can more easily be removed from crushed leaves, and the practical extraction efficiency was 97%. These results indicate that SBE is a useful method to efficiently remove the bifenthrin, and as appearance is not relevant in the production process, tea leaves should first be crushed and then extracted in order that residual pesticides are thoroughly removed.
Highlights
Tea is of great economic importance [1], as the most widely-consumed beverage worldwide, but tea extracts are used as flavoring in sweets and bakery products throughout the world [2]
Subcritical butane extraction parameters were optimized by the response surface methodology (RSM), according to the Box-Behnken design (BBD)
The results suggested that the extraction efficiency of bifenthrin is significantly changed depending on the extraction conditions (Table 1)
Summary
Tea is of great economic importance [1], as the most widely-consumed beverage worldwide, but tea extracts are used as flavoring in sweets and bakery products throughout the world [2]. In order to control the occurrence of pesticides, the establishment of a rapid and efficient way to remove pesticide residues in tea has great realistic significance for ensuring the safety of tea products, and for improving consumers’ health. Several studies on pesticide removal from a variety of plants, including vegetable, fruits and crops, have been reported [6,7,8]. As a common and effective way to remove water-soluble pesticides, washing with water or soaking in salt solution has been used [9]. There still exist some limitations to these techniques, because
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