Tea is a worldwide health beneficial beverage for its antioxidant ability. 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay is a common method to measure the antioxidant capacity of tea compounds, yet the contribution ratio of various characteristic tea compounds is still unclear. high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to examine the content of polyphenol compounds in 24 tea samples from four tea categories (green tea, white tea, oolong tea, and black tea). Based on the results of DPPH and HPLC, contribution ratio of each tea compound was analyzed by the Pearson correlation analysis and the partial least squares regression (PLSR). The Pearson correlation analysis showed that the order of correlation between the area of 13 peaks and the antioxidant ability of tea samples was x8 > x6 > x3 > x13 > x10 > x7 > x2 > x5 > x11 > x9 > x4 > x12 > x1; the regression equation fit by PLSR was Y = 47.258 - 0.760x1 + 0.287x2 - 1.484x3 - 0.569x4 + 0.674x5 + 2.257x6 + 1.698x7 + 1.389x8 - 0.188x9 + 0.467x10 + 0.297x11 + 1.314x12 + 0.963x13. We identified nine common peaks by reference standard substances: the x3 was gallic acid (GA), x4 was theobromine, x5 was catechuic acid (CA), x6 was epigallocatechin (EGC), x8 was epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), x9 was caffeine, x10 was epicatechin (EC), x12 was epicatechin gallate (ECG), and x13 was gallocatechin gallate (GCG). Based on the study of spectrum-effect correlation, we obtain a better understanding of the antioxidant activity of complex tea polyphenols component. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Identify the contribution of specific chemical compound to antioxidant activity by the coefficients in PLSR equation and provide a deeper insight into the joint effect of multiple ingredients of tea. Further, we can infer the DPPH free radical scavenging ability of a new kind of tea by the PLSR equation without chemical detection.
Keywords: antioxidant activities; high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); tea polyphenols.
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