EGCG Content USDA Study
Reveals Healthiest Green Tea
What is the EGCG content in green tea? According to the 2007 USDA report, one cup can contain anything from 5 to 450 milligrams. How does the concentration levels vary?
Catechin is the single most important group of chemicals in green tea .
According to scientist Graham Harold, it makes up 30% to 40% of dried tea
extract.
Green tea contains four kinds of catechins:
EGCG, found in the highest
concentration in green tea, is the most active and best researched of the catechins. It consists
of more than half of catechins.
It has been found to be over 100 times more effective in neutralizing free
radicals than vitamin C and 25 times more powerful than vitamin E.
A 2007 report published by the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) analyses nearly 400 foods for their EGCG
content.
The scientists brewed one gram of tea leaves in 100 millimetres
of water. I have translated the figures into milligrams per 8-ounce cup (about 225
millimetres), which is the standard cup size used in the Western world.
Top of the list is regular green tea.
One cup has a whopping 180 milligrams of EGCG..
Decaffeinated brewed green tea has
only 60 milligrams, about a third of regular tea.
Flavoured brewed green tea has 45
milligrams.
Bringing up the rear is instant or bottled
green tea with only a pitiful 9 milligrams. Unfortunately, it is the most
popular American tea beverage.
Tea beverage containing the highest level of EGCG is regular green
tea. Unsurprisingly, the study reveals that the more green tea is processed, the less antioxidant it contains.
Decaffeination green tea contains only a third of EGCG found in regular green tea because EGCG is removed alongside caffeine during the decaffeination process.
Flavoured tea contains only a quarter of the EGCG because they are made from low quality leaves. That's why flavouring is added in the first place!
Instant green tea is synthetic tea rather than natural tea. They are made from low potency tea extract. Manufacturers avoid high potency extract because they don't taste good. This is because of EGCG's astringent property.
What is regular green tea? Basically it means hot green tea brewed using either tea bags or loose tea leaves. Unfortunately, the study does not differentiate between the two.
Given the high EGCG content quoted by the study, I would venture to guess that more of the regular tea samples are of the loose tea varieties rather than tea bags.
Not convinced? Anyone who has tried loose green tea will conclude that it is higher quality than tea bags. Here is why.
Loose Green Tea Vs Tea Bags
US Department of Agriculture. USDA Database for the Flavanoids Content of
Selected Foods Release 2.1.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Flav/Flav02-1.pdf
Back to Top of EGCG Content
Back to Green Tea Main Page
Back to Amazing Green Tea Home
|
In the tea world,
you can never know too much.
Every month, I put pen to paper a letter to my tea friends worldwide.
Amazing Green Tea Newsletter
is dedicated to solving problems
every tea drinker faces.
|
 |
