Exploitation of Catechin Extract from Pruned Tea Leaves as a Promising Food Preservative Against Lipid Oxidation

Abstract

In Vietnam, a tea-producing country, the tea buds and top three leaves are normally used for tea production while older leaves are pruned and discarded as agricultural waste in the winter. The present study aimed to exploit catechins from pruned tea leaves and use them as natural antioxidants for applications in the food industry. Catechins were analyzed using the guideline of ISO 14502-2-2005 by HPLC-MWD. The contents of catechins in pruned tea leaves of ten popular tea varieties were relatively high, ranging from 65.57 to 136.88 mg/g dry weight. The optimized conditions for catechin extraction from Phuc Van Tien pruned tea leaves (one of the varieties with a high catechin content) were found using response surface methodology as follows: a liquid-to-solid ratio of 21.6/1 at 70^oC for 31 minutes. The catechin-rich extract powder was added to sesame oil to inhibit lipid oxidation. During oil accelerated oxidation at 60^oC, the catechin-rich extract powder inhibited the increase of the peroxide value compared with the negative and positive controls (no preservative and added tert-butylhydroquinone, respectively). Significant positive correlations between the decrease of catechin content and the inhibition of peroxide formation (r = 0.91, 0.94, 0.95, 0.97, and 0.96 for catechin, epigallocatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate, and epicatechin, respectively, P <0.05) proved that the inhibition of peroxide formation in the sesame oil was essentially due to the antioxidant capacity of the catechins in the pruned tea leaf extract. Catechin extracts from pruned tea leaves are potential sources of natural antioxidants for oil preservation.