Bioactive compounds and antioxidant property of Korean traditional tea

The objective of this study was to assess the bioactive compounds and antioxidant property in Korean traditional tea. Ten types of seventy tea samples were purchased from local markets in Seoul. The tea samples were homogenized and prepared by 1% extract with 90□ distilled water. A spectophotometry was used to measure the total polyphenol content at 765nm and total flavonoid content at 415nm. The free radical‐scavenging activity was analyzed by DPPH to assess the antioxidative property. The total polyphenol content showed the highest in green tea as 105.2±16.9(mg/g gallic acid equivalent) followed by persimmon leaf tea as 53.9±24.0. Mulberry leaf tea, chrysanthemum tea, brown rice green tea and eucommia bark tea showed moderate ranging from 30.9~46.9. The total flavonoid content showed the highest in chrysanthemum tea as 7.74±2.60(mg/g quercetin equivalent). Mulberry tea, persimmon leaf tea and eucommia bark tea showed 4.72±1.94, 4.56±1.27 and 4.11±2.34, respectively. The antioxidative property by DPPH showed high in persimmon leaf tea, green tea and brown rice tea ranging from 84.2 to 89.2(%). The antioxidative property was significantly correlated with the total polyphenol compound(p<0.001). We conclude that Korean traditional teas such as chrysanthemum tea, persimmon leaf tea, mulberry tea, eucommia bark tea and green tea are the good source of bioactive compounds and have high antioxidant activity as well.