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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1450348

Extensive ICP-MS and HPLC-QQQ detections reveal the content characteristics of main metallic elements and polyphenols in the representative commercial tea on the market

Provisionally accepted
Yanlin An Yanlin An 1Dahe Qiao Dahe Qiao 2*Tingting Jing Tingting Jing 3*Li Shize Li Shize 1*
  • 1 Moutai College, Renhuai, China
  • 2 Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
  • 3 Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The content of polyphenols and metal elements in tea has an important impact on the choice of consumers. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of ten elements including Fe, Mg, Al, Zn, Cu, Mn, Ni, Cr, Pb, and As in 122 representative tea samples from 20 provinces. The results showed that the difference of metal content among six tea categories was greater than that among provinces, and the overall metal content of black tea was relatively higher. The contents of all elements from high to low were: Mg > Mn > Al > Fe > Zn > Cu > Ni > Cr > Pb > As. The contents of Ni, Fe, Al, Zn and Mn showed significant differences among multiple types of tea categories. While the detection rates of Pb and As were 10.7% and 24.6% respectively. The contents of all elements were in line with the national limit standards. Meanwhile, the relative contents of theanine, caffeine and a total of 53 polyphenolic compounds in 122 tea samples were detected. The analysis showed that the content of these compounds differed least between green and yellow tea, and the largest difference between black tea and oolong tea. This study provides important support for consumers to choose tea rationally.

    Keywords: Six categories of tea, Metal element content, Polyphenols, limited standards, consumer choice

    Received: 17 Jun 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 An, Qiao, Jing and Shize. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Dahe Qiao, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
    Tingting Jing, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
    Li Shize, Moutai College, Renhuai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.