CONTENTS

SL. NO. HEADING PAGE NO.

1 The study of contents responsible for the flavour of

tea
-Introduction
2 Tea Chemistry
3 The components of Tea
-Caffeine
-Carbohydrates
-Amino Acids
-Lipids and Fatty Acids
-Anthocyanidins
-Organic Acids
4 Tea and Health
5 Experiments carried out
-Experiment 1
-Experiment 2
-Experiment 3
6 Conclusion
7 Bibliography
1.The Study of contents responsible for Flavour of Tea
-Introduction
Tea is most commonly and widely used soft beverage in the
household. It acts as stimulant for central nervous system and
skeletal muscles. That is why tea removes fatigue, tiredness and
headache. It also increase capacity of thinking. It is also used for
lowering body temperature. The principle constituent of tea, which
is responsible for all these properties is alkaloid-caffeine. The
amount of caffeine in tea leaves varies from sample to sample.
Originally it was thought that caffeine is responsible for taste and
flavour of tea. But pure caffeine has been found to be as tasteless
while substance .
Therefore, the taste and flavour of tea is due to some other
substance present in it. There is a little doubt that the popularity of
the xanthenes beverages depends on their stimulant action,
although most people are unaware of any stimulation. The degree to
which an individual is stimulated by given amount of caffeine varies
from individual to individual. Tea is made from the young leaves and
buds of the tea plant. Besides caffeine, tea leaves contain tannic acid
and colouring matter, such as polyphenolic compounds. The relative
amounts of these substances are different in different varieties of
tea leaves ,that is why their taste and flavour are different .The
brownish colour of the tea is due to the presence of polyphenolic
compounds and some inorganic icons like Mn+2, Fe3+ etc. some
simple experiments can be carried out to study the components that
are responsible for the variation in tea flavour in various brand of
tea.
2.TEA CHEMISTRY
Chemical composition of fresh tea shoot
Compounds Dry weight Contribution
Total polyphenols 25-30 Astringency
Flavanols
(-)Epigallocatechin gallate 8-12
(-)Epicatechin gallate 3-6
(-)Epigallo catechin 3-6
(-)Epicatechin 1-3
(-)Catechin 1-2
Flavonals and flavano 3-4
glycosides
Leuco anthocyanins 2-3
Polyphenolic acids and 3-4
depsides
Caffeine 3-4 Briskness
Theobromine 0.2
Theophylline 0.5
Amino acids 4-5 Brothynes
Organic acids 0.5-0.6
Monosaccharides 4-5
Polysaccharides 14-22
Cellulose and Hemicellulose 4-7
Pectins 5-6
Lignin 5-6
Protein 14-17
Lipids 3-5
Chlorophylls and other 0.5-0.6 Colour Appearence
pigments
Ash(Minerals) 5-6
Volatiles 0.01-0.02 Aroma
Biochemical compounds responsible for colour
Compounds Colour
Theaflavins Yellowish Brown
Thearubigins Reddish Brown
Flavonol glycosides Light Yellow
Pheophorbine Brownish
Pheophtyn Blackish
Carotene Yellow

Biochemical compounds responsible for taste

Compounds Taste
Plyphenol Astringent
Amino acids Brothy
Caffeine Bitter
Theaflavins Astringent
Thearubigin Ashy and slight astringent

Biochemical compounds responsible for flavour

Compounds Flavour
Linalool, Linalool oxide Sweet
Geraniol,Phenylacetaldehyde Floral
Nerolidol,Benzaldehyde,Methyl Fruity
salicylate, Phenyl ethanol
Trans-2-Hexenal,nHexanal,Cis-3- Fresh flavour
Hexenol,Grassy,b-lonone
3.THE COMPONENTS
Caffeine
Caffeine is a purine derivative, which is 1,3,7–tri-methyl xanthine. Caffeine
content is black tea is around 3-4% of dry weight. It has stimulating property
and removes mental fatigue. The contribution of caffeine to the infusion is the
briskness and creamy property resulting from the complex formed by caffeine
with polyphenols. Briskness is a taste and sensation while creaming is
turbidity that develops from a good cup of tea when cooled. On the contrary
their excessive use is harmful to digestion and their long use leads to mental
retardation.

Tea Fibre
The leaf cell wall, containing cellulostic materials surrounded by hemi-
cellulose and lignin seal, prevents the penetration of hydrolyzing enzymes.
The reduced succulence in the matured shoot is believed to be due to
structural bonding between phenolic components of lignin, polysaccharides
and cutin of cell wall.

Carbohydrates
The free sugars found in tea shoot are glucose, fructose, sucrose, raffinose and
stachyose. Maltose in Assam variety and rhamnose in china variety appeard
special. Pectic substances contain galactose, arabinopse, galacturonic acid,
rhamnose and ribose. Free sugars responsible for the synthesis of catechins is
tea shoot, formation of heterocyclic gflavour compounds during processing of
black tea and contributing towardswater-soluble solids in tea liquor.
Vellulose, hemi-cellulose, pectins and lignums are responsible for the
formation of crude content in black tea.
Amino acids
Asparatic, glutamic, serine, glutamine, tyrosine, valine, phenylalanine, leucine,
isoleucine and theamine (5-N-ethylglutamine) were found to be the principle
amino acids present in tea leaf. Theamine alone contributed around 60% of
total amino acid content Asparagine was formed during withering. The amino
acids play an important role in the aroma during the processing of black tea.

Lipids and fatty acids

The neutral, glycol and phospholipid contents and their fatty acid composition
varies in Assam, China and Camod varieties and also during different stages of
black tea manufacture. Total lipid contents(%) and total fatty cids ( g/g) at
different stagesi.e green leaf, withered leaf, rolled leaf, fermented leaf and
black teas are about 6.5, 5.7, 4.5, 4.3 and 2.8 and 9.8, 8.4, 6.6, 4.8, and 3.7
respectively. The major fatty acids available in tea are lonolenic, linoleic, Oleic
and palmitic.

Anthrocyanidins
Dephenidin and cyaniding were the major anthocyanidins presnt in tea leaf.
Anthocyanin contents were higher in tea shoots from pruned than those of
unpruned bushes. Role of anthocyanins on the quality of black tea however,
has not been found to be significant.

Organic acids
Citric, tartaric, malic, oxalic, fumaric and succinic acids wew detected in
Assam leaf. Role of organic acids towards the biochemical influence on the
quality of black tea Is not yet reported.
4.TEA AND HEALTH
A large body of scientific evidence indicates the benefits of tea
drinking for its wide range of medicineal properties. Tea prevents
coronary heart disease, hypertension, blood sugar and tooth decay.
Tea has also been reported to have antiral and germicidal activity.
The most important nedicianl value of tea is that it is
anticarcinogenic and antimutagenic. The anticarcinogenic activity
contributed by the antioxidant polyphenols in tea has been shown to
be in very low concentration even in consumer dosages. Thus tea
offers tremendous scope of emerging as practical chemipreventive
included in healthy diety for protection of the general consumers by
lowering the risk of different types of cancer.
5. EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT
Experiment 1
Aim:
Compare the water soluble polyphenol content in the various samples of tea leaves.

Requirements:

Beakers, conical flasks, funnels, heating arrangements, Tea bags of different brands of tea.

Theory:

Tea contains up to 30% of the water soluble polyphenols. These are largewly responsible
for the flavour of the tea. To estimate the extent of these compounds in a given sample, the
tea leaves are immersed in hot water for equal time and loss in the weight of tea leaves is
determined.

Procedure:

1. Weigh the different samples of tea and place them in tea bags.
2. Take three or four conical flasks and put 100ml of hot water to each of them.
3. Put tea bags of different samples of tea in the different conical flasks. After 10
minutes remove the tea bags and dry them by placing in an oven.
4. When the tea bags become dry, reweigh them.
5. Note the flavour of the tea solution obtained.
SL. Brand name of Initial Final Loss of % of water
No. Tea weight(gms) weight(gms) weight soluble
(gms) Component
1. Brooke Bond(Taj 2.410 1.810 0.6 75.1 %
Mahal)
2. Homewood Tea 2.390 1.620 0.77 67.8 %
3. Twinings (green 2.290 1.740 0.55 76 %
tea and lemon)

Result:

The tea having better flavour has more polyphenol content.

Experiment 2
Aim:
Compare the Tannic acid content of various samples of tea.

Requirements :
Beakers,conical flasks,funnel,heating arrangement,various samples of tea
,calcium carbonate ,conc. HCL.

Procedure:
1. Weigh 5g of each of the given samples of tea leaves.
2. Take 100ml of distilled water in a 400ml beaker and boil it. Then add
the first sample of tea leaves to it and boil for for 10 minutes and filter
the solution.
3. To the filtrate add about 2g of solid calcium carbonate and boil the
contents .Tannic acid gets precipated as calcium tannate. Separate the
precipitate of calcium tannate bny filteration.
4. Calcium tannate obtaines is hydrolised by warming with 4-5ml of conc.
HCL. The tannic acid obtained is crystallized from water and weighed.
5. Repeat the steps 2,3 and 4 with the other samples of tea and record the
observations.

SL. Brand name of Tea Weight of tea leaves Weight of tannic % of

No. taken (gms) acid obtained(gms) tannic acid
1. Red Label 5.800 1.466 25.3%
2. Waghbakri tea 5.810 0.973 16.7%

Result:
The tea sample with higher percentage of tannic acid gives better flavour.
Experiment 3
Aim:
Compare the caffeine content of the different samples of tea.

Requirements :
Beakers,conical flasks,heating arrangement, different of samples of tea ,
sulphuric acid and chloroform.

Theory:
Tea contains caffeine up to 4 %. It is more soluble in chloroform than in water.
Therefore, it can be extracted from the aqueous extract of the tea with
chloroform. However, tannic acid and lead interfere in the extraction and
these have to be removed first. Tannic acid is removed as calcium tannate and
lead as lead sulphate. After the removal of tannic acid and lead, caffeine is
extracted with chloroform.

Procedure:
1. To the filtrate from Experiment 2 add about 1ml of dil H2SO4. Lead gets
percipated as lead sulphate.
2. Remove the ppt. by filtration and extract the filtrate with chloroform 3-4
times.
3. Combine the chloroform extract and remove the solvent by heating on a
stream bath. The residue left behind is caffeine.
4. Weigh the residue left behind.
5. Similarly, determine the amount of caffeine in other samples of tea.
Sl. Brand name of the Weight of tea Weight of caffeine % of
No. tea leaves taken (gms) obtained (gms) caffeine
1. Red Label 5.800 0.197 3.4 %
2. Waghbakri Tea 5.810 0.168 2.9 %

Result:
The tea sample containing higher flavour of caffeine gives better flavour.
6.CONCLUSION
Tea is made from the young leaves and buds of the tea plant. Besides
caffeine, tea leaves contain tannic acid and colouring matter, such as
polyphenolic compounds. The relative amounts of these
substancesare different in different varieties of tea leaves which is
why, their taste and flavour are different.
The brownish colour of the tea is due to the presence of
polyphenolic compoundsand some inorganic icons like Mn2+, Fe3+
etc.
Tea contains upto 30% of the water soluble polyphenols. These are
largely responsiblefor the flavour of the tea. It contains caffeine up
to 4%. It is more soluble in chloroform than in water. Therefore, it
can be extracted from thw aqueous extract of the tea with
chloroform. However, tannic acid and lead interfere in tha
extraction and these have to be removed first.
Tea acts as a stimulant for central nervous system and skeletal
muscles and removes fatigue, tiredness and headache. The principle
constituent of tea, which is responsible for all thse properties, is the
alkaloid-caffeine. The amount of caffeine in tea leaves varies from
sample to sample.
The conclusions from the three experiments are as follows:
1. The tea having better flavour has more polyphenol content.
2. The tea sample containing higher percentage of tannic acid
gives better flavour.
3. The tea sample containing higher percentage of caffeine gives
better flavour.

7.BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites:
www.google.com
www.wikipedia.com
www.coffeeteaabout.com
www.tocklai.net
www.fmltea.com

Books:

Comprehensive practical chemistry

Investigatory projects on chemistry