Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
and
Yuki o Sai to
Di vi si on of Foods, Nati onal I nsti tute of Heal th Sci ences, 1-18-1 Kami yoga, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158, Japan,
and Showa Womans Uni versi ty, 1-7 Tai shi do, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 154, Japan
Seven fl avonoi d profi l es, some of whi ch were reported to show anti al l ergi c acti vi ty in vitro, were
surveyed i n 28 ki nds of tea. Fl avonoi ds were extracted wi th hot water, hydrol yzed to agl ycons, and
determi ned by HPLC. The hydrol ysi s ti me needed to obtai n the maxi mum for each agl ycon was
exami ned. Fl avonol s querceti n and kaempferol were found i n 17 ki nds of tea i nfusi ons, as wel l as
Japanese green tea i nfusi ons. Myri ceti n was found i n jasmi ne and pu-erh tea i nfusi ons. A fl avon,
l uteol i n, was found i n 5 ki nds of tea i nfusi ons i ncl udi ng great pl antai n tea. Api geni n was found i n
4 ki nds of tea i nfusi ons i ncl udi ng peri l l a l eaf tea, and scutel l arei n was found i n 3 ki nds of tea
i nfusi ons. Scutel l arei n, whi ch i s a potent anti al l ergi c and l ow cytotoxi c fl avonoi d, i s found i n great
pl antai n tea and was detected i n peri l l a l eaf and saffl ower tea i nfusi ons at concentrati ons of
approxi matel y 2 mg/g and 0.3 mg/g i n dri ed whol e tea l eaves, respecti vel y. The presence of
scutel l arei n i n both sampl es was confi rmed by LC/MS.
Keywords: Tea; green tea; flavonoids; quercetin; kaempferol; scutellarein
I NTRODUCTI ON
I n Japan, the demand for vari ous dri ed tea l eaves or
fl ower or treated seed such as green tea and other teas
i ncl udi ng ool ong tea, the i nfusi ons of whi ch are drunk
to keep good heal th (these are cal l ed heal th teas i n
Japan), i s growi ng. The nutri ti onal and therapeuti c
val ues of green tea have been revi ewed (Hara, 1995a).
I t was found that green tea had a benefi ci al effect on
cardi ovascul ar and cerebrovascul ar di seases, a hypoc-
hol esterol emi c effect, anti tumor properti es, and anti -
oxi dant, anti genotoxi c, and anti cari ous acti vi ti es; i t al so
si gni fi cantl y decreased bl ood chol esterol l evel s.
Parti cul ar emphasi s has been pl aced on a group of
pol yphenol i c compounds, because pol yphenol s and thei r
products are responsi bl e for the above-menti oned uni que
characteri sti cs of teas (Hara, 1995a; El l i ott, 1994) such
as anti -i nfl ammatory properti es and anti bacteri al prop-
erti es. The pol yphenol s i n tea are mai nl y fl avanol s,
fl avonol s, fl avonol gl ycosi des, fl avons, and depsi des.
Fourteen fl avonol s and fl avonol gl ycosi des and 19 fl a-
vons and fl avon gl ycosi des have been detected i n green
tea (Hara, 1995b).
The i nhi bi tory effects of hot water tea extracts on
hi stami ne rel ease from rat peri toneal mast cel l s and
thei r hyal uroni dase acti vi ty has been exami ned, and tea
extracts were shown to have anti al l ergi c effects (Maeda,
1989, 1990). Furthermore, structure-acti vi ty studi es
of fl avonoi ds as i nhi bi tors of hyal uroni dase showed that
l uteol i n, api geni n, kaempferol , and si l ybi n have anti -
al l ergi c acti vi ty in vitro(Kuppusamy, 1990). Hi stami ne
rel ease tests usi ng rat basophi l i c l eukemi a (RBL-2H3)
cel l s showed that scutel l arei n potentl y i nhi bi ts hi sta-
mi ne rel ease and has l ow cytotoxi ci ty (Kawasaki , 1994).
However, there are not many data i n the l i terature
on the content of the above-menti oned fl avonoi ds i n teas
except i n wi del y and commonl y consumed bl ack tea and
green tea. Our objecti ve i s to know the content of those
seven wel l -known fl avonoi ds i n heal th tea that i s bei ng
sol d i n Japan. Hertog et al . (1993) exami ned the
contents of three ki nds of fl avonoi ds i n three ki nds of
tea i ncl udi ng Japanese green tea. Engel hardt et al .
(1993) exami ned the api geni n and l uteol i n gl ycosi de
contents i n three ki nds of tea.
As fi ve wi despread fl avonoi d agl ycons were success-
ful l y determi ned by hi gh-performance l i qui d chroma-
tography (HPLC) (Hasl er and Sti cher, 1990), we used
HPLC to determi ne the amounts of the three major
fl avonol s, querceti n, kaempferol , and myri ceti n, and the
four major fl avons, scutel l arei n, api geni n, bai cal ei n, and
l uteol i n. After the most sui tabl e hydrol ysi s ti me had
been deci ded for each tea, we compared thei r l evel s i n
28 ki nds of tea i nfusi ons.
MATERI ALS AND METHODS
Materials. The fol l owi ng teas were used: (1) Angelica
keiskei l eaf tea (ashi tabacha i s the Japanese name); (2)
Gynostemma pentaphyllum tea (amachazurucha); (3) gi ngko
l eaf (Gingkobiloba) tea (i choucha); (4) great pl antai n (Plantago
major) tea (oobakocha/shazensou); (5) ground i vy (Glechoma
hederacea) tea (kaki doushi cha); (6) Japanese persi mmon (Di-
ospyros kaki) l eaf tea (kaki nohacha); (7) Chrysanthemum
fl ower (Chrysanthemum morifolium) tea (ki kubanacha); (8)
Gymnema sylvestre Schult. tea (gi munemacha); (9) guava
(Psidiumguajava L.) tea (guavacha); (10) Chi nese matri mony
vi ne (Lycium chinense Mi l l .) tea (kukocha); (11) l ow stri ped
bamboo l eaf (Sasa albo-marginata) tea (kumazasacha); (12)
mul berry l eaf (MorusbombycisKoi dz.) tea (kuwanohacha); (13)
peri l l a (Perilla frutescens) l eaf tea (shi sonohacha); (14) jasmi ne
(J asminumsambac) fl ower tea (jasumi ncha); (15) fi el d horse-
tai l (Equisetum arvense) tea (sugi nacha); (16) Rubus suavis-
simus tea (Chi nese tencha); (17) Houttuynia cordata tea
(dokudami cha); (18) gutta-perca tree (Eucommiaulmoides) l eaf
tea (tochucha); (19) East I ndi an l otus (Nelumbo nucifera) tea
(hasucha); (20) adl al y (Coixlachrymajobi) tea (hatomugi cha);
(21) banava (Legerstroemia speciosa) tea (banavacha); (22)
Japanese medl ar (Eriobotrya japonica) l eaf tea (bi wanohacha);
(23) pu-erh (Camellia sinensis, Chi nese mi crobi al -fermented
* Author to whom correspondence shoul d be ad-
dressed [e-mai l toyoda@ni hs.go.jp; fax +81(3)3707 6950].