Open AccessMicrobiological activity of whole and fractionated crude extracts of tea ( Camellia sinensis ), and of tea components
Author(s) -
Yam T.S,
Shah Saroj,
HamiltonMiller J.M.T
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1997.tb10424.x
Subject(s) - camellia sinensis , theaceae , traditional medicine , chemistry , herbal tea , camellia , green tea , biology , food science , botany , biochemistry , medicine , antioxidant
Aqueous extracts of teas ( Camellia sinensis ) of different types and from various sources inhibited a wide range of pathogenic bacteria, including methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus . Tea extracts were bactericidal to staphylococci and Yersinia enterocolitica at well below ‘cup of tea’ concentrations. Activity was confined to one of four fractions obtained from a green tea extract by partition chromatography. Testing of pure tea compounds and closely related chemicals suggested that the antibacterial activity of extracts of green tea can be explained by its content of epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin gallate and epicatechin gallate. In black tea extracts, theaflavin and its gallates are additional antibacterially active components.