Chemical Compositions, Health Benefits and Product Diversification of Tea:

Abstract

Tea is mostly considered as a processed product from the fresh tender leaves of Camellia sinensis through different processing techniques. Based on the processing technique tea is named green tea, black tea, oolong tea, etc. The biochemical components in tea leaves consist of mainly catechin, phenolic acids, purine alkaloids, amino acids, saponins, tannins, flavonols, and their glycosides in many forms. Each type of tea has its own set of chemical compositions with a distinct flavour. All these bioactives cause significant changes in their biological activities both in vitro and in vivo and possess numerous health benefits. With the growing production of raw materials in India and with the change in trends of taste and use, price realization is going down and without the development of newer products like ready-to-drink tea, nutraceuticals from tea bioactive, etc, sustainability will be a challenge. In the present review, the chemical composition and health benefits of tea and new kind of value-added products based on tea are also discussed briefly.

Keywords: Camellia sinensis, tea, catechin, theaflavins, diversified product