Physicochemical Quality Characteristics of Hand-Made Traditional Tea
Jerusalem artichoke, bitter gourd, sword bean, beet, greater burdock, and lotus root were dried at 70℃ for 12 h and extracted at 70℃ for 3 min. The resulting extracts were analyzed to determine their pH, color, total polyphenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging activity, and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The pH of the hand-made teas ranged from 5.80 to 6.97, indicating overall weakly acidic properties. Greater burdock and beet teas showed high phenolic compound contents. Bitter gourd tea had the highest levels of TPC (44.93±0.28 mg GAE/100 mL) and TFC (13.61±0.31 mg CE/100 mL), whereas sword bean tea had the lowest levels of TPC (15.57±0.37 mg GAE/100 mL) and TFC (4.19±0.07 mg CE/100 mL). DPPH radical-scavenging activity analysis indicated that bitter gourd and greater burdock teas exhibited the strongest antioxidant activities, whereas beet tea exhibited the lowest scavenging activity. Jerusalem artichoke, lotus root, and sword bean teas also exhibited significant scavenging activities. In contrast, α-glucosidase inhibitory activity was highest in bitter gourd tea, followed by that in Jerusalem artichoke, burdock, lotus root, beet, and sword bean teas. Correlation analysis indicated that higher TPC and TFC were associated with superior antioxidant (DPPH) and antidiabetic (α-glucosidase) properties of the assessed hand-made teas.