Effect of tea products on the in vitro enzymatic digestibility of starch.

The importance of postprandial hyperglycemia in the treatment of diabetes has been recognized recently. Tea products, such as tea polyphenols (TP), epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), matcha, and instant tea, were chosen as constituents of tea-flour food, aimed at regulating the release of glucose from starchy foods in the postprandial period. Six starches were chosen for internal composition analysis and hydrolysis studies in vitro. Corn starch, wheat starch, and lily root flour appeared to have higher resistant starch content, slower digestion profiles, and lower kinetic constants, implying sustained release of glucose in the gastrointestinal tract. The effect of tea products on starch digestion was determined in order to get a desired formulation of dietary product for patients with hyperglycemia. Compared with macha and instant tea, TP and EGCG exerted greater inhibition of amylase and amyloglucosidase, especially for corn starch with 0.5% TP or 0.5% EGCG.

Inhibition of wheat starch retrogradation by tea derivatives.

The effect of four industrial tea derivatives (tea polyphenols [TPS], tea water-soluble extracts [TSE], tea polysaccharides [TSS], and green tea powder [GTP]), on the retrogradation of wheat starch was investigated using texture profile analysis (TPA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rapid viscosity analysis (RVA), and the α-amylase-iodine method. The addition of the four tea derivatives resulted in decreased hardness and increased cohesiveness of the starch gel as shown by the TPA test. The DSC data demonstrated an increase in the enthalpy change of starch gelatinization and a decrease in the enthalpy change of starch recrystallite dissociation. The RVA results indicated that the peak viscosity, representing the intermolecular forces of wheat starch, was reduced after addition of TPS, TSE, and TSS, respectively, but was increased by GTP. Furthermore, the half crystallization time in the Avrami equation almost doubled after the separate addition of the tea derivatives.

Determination of theanine and gamma-aminobutyric acid in tea by high performance- liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization.

A method of precolumn derivatization-high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the determination of theanine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in tea was established. o-Phthalaldehyde (OPA) and N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) were chosen as the derivatization reagents. The effects of teapolyphenol (Tp), proline (Pro) and Vitamin C (Vc) on derivatization yields were investigated. The results indicated that Vc not only stabilized the stock solution of OPA, but also enhanced the yield of GABA derivative. However, the yield of theanine derivative was less affected. The HPLC separation system was also optimized. The resolution of the derivatives was improved by adjusting the pH value and phosphate-citric buffer concentration of the mobile phase. The limits of detection (LODs) for GABA and theanine were 3.01 x 10(-5) mmol/L and 7.98 x 10(-5) mmol/L, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 9.99 x 10(-5) mmol/L and 2.658 x 10(-4) mmol/L, respectively. The linear ranges of GABA and theanine were 0.01 - 0.4 mmol/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.996 and 0.05 - 0.8 mmol/L with the correlation coefficient of 0.995, respectively. The main recoveries for GABA and theanine in green tea, Oolong tea, and black tea, ranged from 99.29% to 119.60% and from 62.88% to 141.06% respectively. The method with simple procedure and efficient separation was proved to be suitable for the determination of GABA and theanine in tea.