Abstract
Tea has been reported to prevent and manage many chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases, and the antioxidant capacity of tea may be responsible for these health benefits. In this study, the antioxidant capacities of fat-soluble, water-soluble, and bound-insoluble fractions of 30 Chinese teas belonging to six categories, namely green, black, oolong, dark, white, and yellow teas, were systematically evaluated, applying ferric-reducing antioxidant power and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assays. In addition, total phenolic contents of teas were determined by Folin–Ciocalteu method, and the contents of 18 main phytochemical compounds in teas were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results found that several teas possessed very strong antioxidant capacity, and caffeine, theaflavine, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, ellagic acid, and kaempferol-3-O-glucoside, as well as eight catechins, were the main antioxidant compounds in them. Thus, these teas could be good natural sources of dietary antioxidants, and their extracts might be developed as food additives, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.
Highlights
Tea is generally made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, and is a very popular soft drink all over the world
Ferric-Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) values ranged from 611.18 ± 5.09 to 5375.18 ± 228.43 μmol Fe (II)/g dry weight (DW) with a 9-fold difference
FRAP and Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC) values were significantly and positively correlated with Total Phenolic Content (TPC) (R2 = 0.883, p < 0.001 and R2 = 0.941, p < 0.001, respectively). These results suggested that the phenolic compounds could be the main components contributing to the antioxidant activities of tea
Summary
Tea is generally made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, and is a very popular soft drink all over the world. Tea has been widely associated with various health functions, such as the cardiovascular protective, anticancer, antidiabetic, antiobesity, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective effects [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. These beneficial effects can be mainly attributed to the natural antioxidant phytochemicals in tea, especially polyphenols, which may undergo big differences in different teas with diverse genotypes, maturity, producing areas, or fermentation degrees [11,12,13,14,15].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call