C. A. Uthurry^1,2 , C. Gmez-Cordovs¹

1. Departamento de Caracterizacin, Calidad y Seguridad (DCCS), Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologa de Alimentos (ICTAN), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas (CSIC), C/Juan de la Cierva, 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain 2. Escuela de Produccin, Tecnologa y Medio Ambiente, Universidad Nacional de R­o Negro (UNRN), Mitre 331, 8336 Villa Regina, Rio Negro, Argentina
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2015.05.0002
Received: 10 Dec., 2014    Accepted: 13 Jan., 2015    Published: 02 Feb., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Uthurry and Gómez-Cordovés, 2015, Phenolic compound content and Antioxidant activity of Infusion dregs, Journal of Tea Science Research, Vol.5, No.2, 1-10 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2015.05.0002)

The dregs of infusions (prepared as in the home) were examined to determine their antioxidant activity (AOA) and their potential as sources of phenolic compounds. Infusions of red tea, green tea and classic tea, chamomile, mint pennyroyal, linden, chamomile with anise and blends of different plants were made using commercially available ‘tea bags’. The AOAs of the original infusion material extracts and dreg extracts were measured using the ORAC-FL (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity – Fluoresceine) method; their total phenolic compound contents (TPC)were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu assay. Classic tea dreg extract retained some 52.8% of the AOA of the original infusion extract; TPC retention was also high (up to 99.5%). A positive linear correlation was found between AOA and the TPC in all the dreg extracts. Significant differences were observed between the dreg extracts in terms of their TPC and AOA retentions. The potential of infusion dregs as a new source of antioxidants is discussed.

Tea; Dregs; Antioxidants; Polyphenols; ORAC-FL