Current extraction, purification, and identification techniques of tea polyphenols: An updated review

Abstract

Tea, as a beverage, has been reputed for its health benefits and gained worldwide popularity. Tea polyphenols, especially catechins, as the main bioactive compounds in tea, exhibit diverse health benefits and have wide applications in the food industry. The development of tea polyphenol-incorporated products is dependent on the extraction, purification, and identification of tea polyphenols. Recent years, many green and novel extraction, purification, and identification techniques have been developed for the preparation of tea polyphenols. This review, therefore, introduces the classification of tea and summarizes the main conventional and novel techniques for the extraction of polyphenols from various tea products. The advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are also intensively discussed and compared. In addition, the purification and identification techniques are summarized. It is hoped that this updated review can provide a research basis for the green and efficient extraction, purification, and identification of tea polyphenols, which can facilitate their utilization in the production of various functional food products and nutraceuticals.

GRAPHICAL ABTSRACT

Keywords:

• Camellia sinensis L.
• catechins; identification
• isolation; purification
• tea beverage

CRediT statements

Hang Li: Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review & Editing, Visualization; Huan Guo: Writing - Original draft, Writing - Review & Editing; Qiong Luo: Writing - Original draft; Ding-Tao Wu: Writing - Review & Editing; Liang Zou: Conceptualization, Writing - Reviewing and Editing; Yi Liu: Writing - Review & Editing; Hua-Bin Li: Writing - Review & Editing; Ren-You Gan: Conceptualization, Writing - Reviewing and Editing, Supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Key R&D Program of China] under Grant [number 2018YFC1604400] and the [Junior Scientist Project of Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology] under Grant [number 2021JDRC0141].