Simultaneous Determination of Black Tea-Derived Catechins and Theaflavins in Tissues of Tea Consuming Animals Using Ultra-Performance Liquid-Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

PLoS One. 2016 Oct 3;11(10):e0163498. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163498. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The bioavailability, tissue distribution and metabolic fate of the major tea polyphenols, catechins and theaflavins as well as their gallated derivatives are yet to be precisely elucidated on a single identification platform for assessment of their relative bioefficacy in vivo. This is primarily due to the lack of suitable analytical tools for their simultaneous determination especially in an in vivo setting, which continues to constrain the evaluation of their relative health beneficiary potential and therefore prospective therapeutic application. Herein, we report a rapid and sensitive Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) based method for the simultaneous determination of the major catechins and theaflavins in black tea infusions as well as in different vital tissues and body fluids of tea-consuming guinea pigs. This method allowed efficient separation of all polyphenols within seven minutes of chromatographic run and had a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of ~5 ng/ml. Using this method, almost all bioactive catechins and theaflavins could be simultaneously detected in the plasma of guinea pigs orally administered 5% black tea for 14 days. Our method could further detect the majority of these polyphenols in the lung and kidney as well as identify the major catechin metabolites in the urine of the tea-consuming animals. Overall, our study presents a novel tool for simultaneous detection and quantitation of both catechins and theaflavins in a single detection platform that could potentially enable precise elucidation of their relative bioavailability and bioefficacy as well as true health beneficiary potential in vivo. Such information would ultimately facilitate the accurate designing of therapeutic strategies utilizing high efficacy formulations of tea polyphenols for effective mitigation of oxidative damage and inflammation in humans as well as prevention of associated diseases.

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Oral
  • Animals
  • Antioxidants / chemistry
  • Antioxidants / therapeutic use
  • Biflavonoids / blood
  • Biflavonoids / chemistry
  • Biflavonoids / isolation & purification*
  • Catechin / blood
  • Catechin / chemistry
  • Catechin / isolation & purification*
  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Guinea Pigs
  • Humans
  • Polyphenols / blood
  • Polyphenols / chemistry
  • Polyphenols / isolation & purification*
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry
  • Tea / chemistry*
  • Tea / metabolism

Substances

  • Antioxidants
  • Biflavonoids
  • Polyphenols
  • Tea
  • theaflavin
  • Catechin

Grants and funding

Financial support for this work was received from Tea Board of India, Govt. of India to KP (Sanction No. RL 21 (20) /2007/Part-I/4103) .The funder (Tea Board of India, Govt. of India) provided support in the form of salary (research fellowship) for SG (first author) and funds for procurement of chemicals, equipment and other research materials to KP, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of SG and KP in the study are clearly described in the ‘author contributions’ section. Neither Waters India Pvt. Ltd. nor its Application Scientists TG and SM, serving as co-authors in this manuscript, were involved in any form in the funding or designing of the study but providing assistance in operating of the instruments, acquisition and processing of data (TG & SM) as well as preparation of manuscript (SM).