Fermentation with Tea Residues Enhances Antioxidant Activities and Polyphenol Contents in Kombucha Beverages.

Dan-Dan Zhou,Ao Shang,Adila Saimaiti,Ren-You Gan,Min Luo,Ruo-Gu Xiong,Hua-Bin Li,Si-Yu Huang

doi:10.3390/antiox11010155

Abstract

Kombucha is a popular beverage with various bioactivities (such as antioxidant activity), which can be attributed to its abundant bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols. Kombucha is conventionally prepared by fermentation of a sugared black tea infusion without tea residue. In this study, the effects of black tea residue and green tea residue on kombucha were studied, and its antioxidant activities, total phenolic contents, as well as concentrations of polyphenols at different fermentation stages were evaluated using ferric-reducing antioxidant power, Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, Folin-Ciocalteu method and high-performance liquid chromatography with a photodiode array detector. The results showed that fermentation with tea residue could markedly increase antioxidant activities (maximum 3.25 times) as well as polyphenolic concentrations (5.68 times) of kombucha. In addition, green tea residue showed a stronger effect than black tea residue. Overall, it is interesting to find that fermentation with tea residues could be a better strategy to produce polyphenol-rich kombucha beverages.

Highlights

Fermentation with tea residue significantly enhances the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) values of kombucha beverages, and green tea residue showed a stronger effect than black tea residue
Fermentation with tea residue markedly increase the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) values of kombucha beverage, and green tea residue showed a stronger effect than black tea residue, which was similar to the FRAP results
Fermentation with tea residue markedly augmented the total phenolic content (TPC) values of kombucha beverage, and green tea residue showed a stronger effect than black tea residue, which was in accordance with the FRAP and TEAC results

Summary

Introduction

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is a widely consumed beverage with a long drinking history [1,2]. Kombucha is a popular beverage and possesses a variety of bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, lipids, proteins and diverse metabolic products of yeasts and bacteria. The presence of these bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols, confers kombucha multiple bioactivities, such as antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antihypertensive, hypoglycemic, cholesterol-lowering, hepatoprotective, antiproliferative, and antimicrobial activities [7,8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion