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. 2016 Apr 11;21(4):474.
doi: 10.3390/molecules21040474.

The Powdering Process with a Set of Ceramic Mills for Green Tea Promoted Catechin Extraction and the ROS Inhibition Effect

Kouki Fujioka  1 , Takeo Iwamoto  2 , Hidekazu Shima  3 , Keiko Tomaru  4 , Hideki Saito  5 , Masaki Ohtsuka  6 , Akihiro Yoshidome  7 , Yuri Kawamura  8 , Yoshinobu Manome  9
Affiliations

The Powdering Process with a Set of Ceramic Mills for Green Tea Promoted Catechin Extraction and the ROS Inhibition Effect

Kouki Fujioka et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

For serving green tea, there are two prominent methods: steeping the leaf or the powdered leaf (matcha style) in hot water. The purpose of the present study was to reveal chemical and functional differences before and after the powdering process of green tea leaf, since powdered green tea may contribute to expanding the functionality because of the different ingesting style. In this study, we revealed that the powdering process with a ceramic mill and stirring in hot water increased the average extracted concentration of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) by more than three times compared with that in leaf tea using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analyses. Moreover, powdered green tea has a higher inhibition effect of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in vitro compared with the same amount of leaf tea. Our data suggest that powdered green tea might have a different function from leaf tea due to the higher catechin contents and particles.

Keywords: ROS; catechin; green tea; matcha; mill; polyphenol; powdering process.

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Conflict of interest statement

This research was funded by Sharp Corporation. K.F. received the grants and endowments for this study from Sharp Corporation. H.S. (Hidekazu Shima), M.O., A.Y., and Y.K. are employees of Sharp Corporation. Tea brewing system (Ocha Presso) using the ceramic mills reported in this manuscript was developed by Sharp Corporation. Some technologies related to the tea brewing system are pending patents applied by Sharp Corporation. The Ocha Presso brewing system (including the ceramic mills) is commercially available.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Appearance of green tea leaf and powder produced with different powdering method. Left panel (color) shows the photograph of green leaf and the powders produced with indicated powdering process. Right panel (monochrome) shows the images of leaf and the powders using the scanning electron microscope at indicated magnification.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Particle appearance in the green tea liquid and size distribution of tea particles: (a) multifocal microscope images of particles in regular tea and the powdered tea produced by indicated powdering process; and (b) particle size distributions of the teas measured with laser diffraction particle size analyzer. Regular: Regular leaf tea.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Differences of catechins between Powder and Leaf green tea in liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) chromatogram (negative mode, representative data in three measurements): base peak chromatogram (a); and extracted ion chromatogram of indicated catechins ((b)–(e)).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Differences in reactive oxygen species (ROS) inhibitory effects of green teas in vitro: (a) superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like activity of green teas at indicated dilution rate; and (b) intracellular ROS intensity in Jurkat cell line added with green teas (1/500 dilution). * and # indicate differences between Powder vs. Leaf tea and Strong Powder vs. Strong Leaf tea at 5% significant level, respectively (Bonferroni/Dunn method).
Figure 5
Figure 5
A set of ceramic mill set in a tea maker.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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