Phenolic Profiles and Antioxidant Properties of Turkish Black Tea Manufactured with Orthodox Method

Abstract

In this research, it was aimed to determine the amount of catechins and polymerized catechins in and antioxidant activity of Turkish teas manufactured with Orthodox method. Tea samples were obtained from 20 tea plants which belong to the Turkish Tea Board (Çay-Kur, Turkey). The samples were analyzed for dry matter, antioxidant activity as ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), total phenolics, theaflavin (TF), thearubigin (TR). Catechins and caffeine amounts were also determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). According to the results of this study, dry matter ranged between 91.26-92.97 %; FRAP value between 788-1079.82 μmol g^-1; total phenolics between 72.90- 83.88 mg g^-1; TF value between 0.12-0.38 %; TR value between 11.64- 13.80 %. Besides, gallocatechin (GC) was in the range of 0.36-0.89 %, catechin (C) 0.02-0.36 %, epigallocatechin gallat (EGCg) 0.02-0.15 %, epicatechin (EC) 0.02-0.81 %, epicatechin gallat (ECg) 0.01-0.21 %. Caffeine content was found to be between 2.13 and 2.54 %.