Antioxidant Character and Levels of Polyphenols in Several Tea Samples

The present study measured the antioxidant properties of 15 commercial tea samples as expressed by the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) hydro, ORAC lipo, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) indexes. The main antioxidant compounds known to be present in tea are several catechins and catechin gallates, gallic acid, theaflavin and some theaflavin gallates, and theogallin. In this study, only gallic acid and the four most common catechins (epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epigallocatechin gallate) were analyzed in the tea samples. In addition, caffeine levels were measured. The ORAC and FRAP values for these compounds were also determined. The levels of theaflavin, theaflavin gallates, and theogallin were not measured since these compounds are present at relatively low levels in tea. The ORAC (and FRAP) indexes for each tea sample were also calculated based on the content of individual antioxidant compounds and their ORAC and FRAP indexes. Correlations between the experimental ORAC (and FRAP) and the calculated values were further obtained. The correlations were poor, with R ² = 0.3657 for ORAC hydro, R ² = 0.2794 for ORAC lipo, and R ² = 0.6929 for FRAP. The poor correlation between the overall catechin content and the experimental ORAC values in tea infusions was previously reported in the literature. The present study directly calculated the expected ORAC index from individual antioxidant components and reached the same result of poor correlation. For FRAP values, no comparison was previously reported in the literature. The poor correlations were not well explained, indicating that the cause of the antioxidant character of tea is more complex than simply produced by the main catechins.