Comparative study of antioxidant potential of tea with and without additives.

Oxidative damage is one of the many mechanism leading to chronic diseases. Therefore interest is growing in the protection afforded by antioxidant nutrients against free radical reactions. More recently, the attention has shifted to polyphenols. Polyphenols are secondary plant metabolites occurring widely in plant food. They possess outstanding antioxidant properties, suggesting a possible protective role in man. Tea (Camellia sinensis) is a widely consumed beverage throughout the world containing polyphenols more than 35% of its dry weight. In the present work we have investigated the effect of tea without milk, tea with milk and lemon tea on the serum lipid peroxidation level (as a parameter of free radical generation). The results show that there were significant decrease in serum lipid peroxidation (Malonaldehyde) level half hour after ingestion of lemon tea and tea without milk which tends to normalize with increase in time. This decrease is much significant in case of lemon tea than tea without milk after half hour or one hour. Hence the interpretation is, tea without milk is a good source of antioxidant and addition of lemon to tea increases its antioxidant potential.