Original Articles
JyotismitaKhasnabis, Chandan R
Abstract
Tannins are water soluble polyphenols. Tea leaves are abundant natural sources of polyphenols which get oxidized during processing to prepare the final products. Of the three main types of tea, black tea is produced by complete oxidation (fermentation) while oolong tea is semi-oxidized. Green tea production bypasses oxidation step. Tannins are antioxidant but at high concentration may act as antinutritional. In this study tannin content in various types of tea has been assessed by titrimetric method. Of the tea samples studied black tea was found to contain highest amount of tannin while green tea contained lowest amount of tannin.