Effects of brewing conditions on the antioxidant capacity of twenty-four commercial green tea varieties

A novel paper-based Nanoceria Reducing Antioxidant Capacity (NanoCerac) assay for antioxidant detection (Sharpe, Frasco, Andreescu, & Andreescu, 2012), has been adapted for the first time as a high-throughput method, in order to measure the effect of brewing conditions and re-infusion on the antioxidant capacity of twenty-four commercial green teas. The oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, frequently applied to complex foods and beverages, was used as a comparator measure of antioxidant capacity. A novel measure of sustained antioxidant capacity, the total inherent antioxidant capacity (TI-NanoCerac and TI-ORAC) was measured by infusing each tea six times. Effects of brewing conditions (temperature, brew time, etc.) were assessed using one popular tea as a standard. Both NanoCerac and ORAC assays correlated moderately (R-2 0.80 +/- 0.19). The average first-brew NanoCerac, TI-NanoCerac, first-brew ORAC and TI-ORAC were: 0.73 +/- 0.1 GAE/g tea; 2.4 +/- 0.70 mmol GAE/g tea; 1.0 +/- 0.3 mmol TE/g tea and 2.1 +/- 0.71 mmol TE/g tea respectively. Brewing conditions including water temperature and infusion time significantly affected antioxidant capacity. The high-throughput adaptation of the original NanoCerac assay tested here offered advantages over ORAC, including portability and rapid analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.