Smartphone-based digital images as a low-cost and simple colorimetric approach for the assessment of total phenolic contents in several specific Vietnamese dried tea products and their liquors

Limonium brasiliense is a common plant on the southern coast of Brazil. The roots are traditionally used for treatment of premenstrual syndrome, menstrual disturbances and genito-urinary infections. Pharmaceutical preparations obtained from its roots and used for these purposes were marketed in Brazil in the 1980s and 1990s. Currently, the Brazilian Drug Agency (National Health Surveillance Agency, ANVISA) has canceled the registration of these products, and their use was discontinued because of a lack of studies to characterize the plant raw material and ensure the effectiveness and safety of its use. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate an analytical method to determine the content of total polyphenols (TP) in an extract from L. brasiliense roots, by the UV/Vis spectrophotometric method. L. brasiliense roots were extracted in acetone:water (7:3, v/v-10% w/v). The crude extract was used to develop a method for TP assay. The method was validated according to national and international guidelines. The optimum conditions for analysis time, wavelength, and standard substance were 30 min, 760 nm, and pyrogallol, respectively. Under these conditions, validation by UV/Vis spectrophotometry proved the method to be linear, specific, precise, accurate, reproducible, robust, and easy to perform. This methodology complies with the requirements for analytical application and to ensure the reliability of the results. Show more

An isocratic HPLC procedure was developed for the simultaneous determination of caffeine and six catechins in tea samples. When 31 commercial teas extracted by boiling water or 75% ethanol were analyzed by HPLC, the levels of (-)-epigallocatechin 3-gallate (EGCG), and total catechins in teas were in the order green tea (old leaves) > green tea (young leaves) and oolong tea > black tea and pu-erh tea. Tea samples extracted by 75% ethanol could yield higher levels of EGCG and total catechins. The contents of caffeine and catechins also have been measured in fresh tea leaves from the Tea Experiment Station in Wen-Shan or Taitung; the old tea leaves contain less caffeine but more EGCG and total catechins than young ones. To compare caffeine and catechins in the same tea but manufactured by different fermentation processes, the level of caffeine in different manufactured teas was in the order black tea > oolong tea > green tea > fresh tea leaf, but the levels of EGCG and total catechins were in the order green tea > oolong tea > fresh tea leaf > black tea. In addition, six commercial tea extracts were used to test the biological functions including hydroxyl radical scavenging, nitric oxide suppressing, and apoptotic effects. The pu-erh tea extracts protected the plasmid DNA from damage by the Fenton reaction as well as the control at a concentration of 100 microg/mL. The nitric oxide suppressing effect of tea extracts was in the order pu-erh tea >/= black tea > green tea > oolong tea. The induction of apoptosis by tea extract has been demonstrated by DNA fragmentation ladder and flow cytometry. It appeared that the ability of tea extracts to induce HL-60 cells apoptosis was in the order green tea > oolong > black tea > pu-erh tea. All tea extracts extracted by 75% ethanol have stronger biological functions than those extracted by boiling water. Show more

The current research involves the study of the thermal treatment of quercetin and rutin in an aqueous model system (cooking). These substances were heated and their degradation was followed by high-performance liquid chromatography/diode-array detection (HPLC/DAD). The influence of pH and the involvement of oxygen in the degradation were studied. HPLC/electrospray ionization multi-stage mass spectrometry (ESI-MS(n)) was used for the structural characterization of the compounds produced. The influence of the degradation of the phenolic compounds on their antioxidant properties was elucidated by a electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry study of the reaction samples mixed with the stabilized radical, Fremy's salt. Strong degradation of the model substances took place under weak basic and oxidative conditions. Quercetin showed the most intense degradation. Protocatechuic acid could be identified as a cleavage reaction product by analyzing its retention time and molar mass during the degradation of quercetin. The structure of a second cleavage product could be identified on the basis of ESI-MS(n) fragmentation data. Also, several structures for reaction products of oxidized quercetin are suggested. The ESR analysis showed a decrease in the antioxidant activity of the reaction samples after heat treatment in aqueous solution. Show more