The chemical constituents in the Pu-erh tea were isolated by various column chromatographic methods, and their structures were identified by spectral data and physic-chemical analysis. As a result, eleven flavonoids were isolated and identified as kaempferol (1), quercetin (2), kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), kaempferol-3-O-beta-D-rutinoside (4), apigenin-6-C-alpha-L-arabinopyranosyl-8-C-beta-D-glucopyranoside (5), vitexin-4"-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (6), kaempferol-3-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1--> 3)-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1-->6)-beta-D-glucopyranoside] (7), quercetin3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (8), rutin (9), quercetin-3-0-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (10), and myricetin-3-0-beta-D-glucopyranoside (11). Compounds 5-7, 10 and 11 were isolated from Pu-erh tea for the first time.
Camellia sinensis ; chemistry ; Flavones ; chemistry ; Mass Spectrometry ; Molecular Structure ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; Tea ; chemistry

Nowadays, tea and the substitution (other kinds of tea) take an important status in the drinking, food, health product and the related industry. The most popular Green tea, Maté originated from South America, Large-leaved Kudingcha, Small-leaved Kudingcha, and the Eagle tea used civilian have many similarities on history, chemical constituents and biological activities. In this article, we summarized the similarities and the characteristics of the Green tea and the other four teas in order to provide scientific evidences for better development of the tea and substitutions.
Antioxidants ; analysis ; pharmacology ; Camellia sinensis ; chemistry ; Humans ; Plant Leaves ; chemistry ; Tea ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo study the effect of anti-progression activity of edible plants using urokinase as the biomarker.

METHODSBased on the assay of urokinase activity with peptide of Glu-Gly-Arg as the reaction substrate, extract of 25 fruits and 37 vegetables and water extract of tea were reacted against urokinase activity after Spectrozyme UK [carbobenzyl-1-gamma-Glu(alpha-t-BuO)-Gly-Arg-rho-nitroanilide. 2C2H5OH] was added and the residual urokinase activity was measured by the microplate photometer.

RESULTSAbout half of the fruit and vegetable samples showed urokinase inhibitory activity (UIA) at 20% or more and among them lemon, kiwi-fruit, peas, spinach and pumpkin showed effects over 80%, while garlic, radish, Japanese butterbur, garland chrysanthemum, celery, plum, pineapple and grape ranged between 50% and 79%. Average UIA of 51 kinds of tea was 83.2% and among them 28 kinds showed UIA over 90% and other 20 kinds of tea ranged from 70% to 89%. Green tea showed inhibitory effects on urokinase activity more powerful than black tea and Oolong tea. On the other hand, vegetable showed various UIA with different ways of processing. Comparing the effects of various solvents, garlic extracted with methanol, spinach with ethyl acetate, and pumpkin and radish with water showed highest UIA.

CONCLUSIONPopular fruits, vegetables and tea in daily life could inhibit urokinase activity and may be helpful in the prevention of malignant tumor formation.

Fruit ; chemistry ; Plant Extracts ; pharmacology ; Plants, Edible ; chemistry ; Tea ; chemistry ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator ; antagonists & inhibitors ; metabolism ; pharmacology ; Vegetables ; chemistry

The tea beverages will be endowed with distinct aroma and taste, as well as various biologically active compounds including probiotic factors, when fermented with lactic acid bacteria (LAB). However, at present, few studies on the dynamics of flavors in tea soup at different fermentation stages were conducted. In this study, the composition of monosaccharides, aromatic components, free amino acids, and organic acids were measured, when the black tea beverages were fermented with Lactobacillus coryniformis FZU63 which was isolated from Chinese traditional kimchi. The results indicated that monosaccharides including glucose, fructose, mannose and xylose in black tea beverages are the main carbon sources for fermentation. In addition, the abundance of aromatic compounds in black tea soup are increased significantly at different fermentation stages, which endow the fermented black tea soup with fruit aroma on the basis of flowery and nutty aroma. Moreover, some bitter amino acids are reduced, whereas the content of sweet and tasty amino acids is elevated. Furthermore, the levels of lactic acid, malic acid, citric acid and other organic acids are accumulated during the fermentation. Additionally, sensory evaluation displays that black tea beverage is acquired with comprehensive high-quality after being fermented for 48 h. This study provides a theoretical basis to steer and control the flavor formation and quality of the fermented tea beverages during LAB fermentation.
Tea/chemistry* ; Beverages/microbiology* ; Camellia sinensis ; Fermentation ; Acids ; Amino Acids ; Glucose

BACKGROUND: It is very important to keep the quality of the process of clinical tests and for that internal & extenal quality control procedures are performed in many clinical laboratorys. With the simultaneous use of external quality control materials for internal and external quality control procedures, not only precision but also bias presumed to be systematic error can be assessed. Also the control limits for internal quality control procedure can be obtained. It is the aim of this study to investigate the useful aspects of the integration of internal and extenal quality control procedures. METHODS: The Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Laboratory 2006-CC-01 quality control materials for external quality control survey were tested on 19 general chemistry items with Hitachi 7180 (Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan) autoanlyzer once a day for 20 days. Current means and standard deviations(sd) were obtained from internal quality control results for 20 days and were used to calculate the biases with target means from external quality control survey results. Bias, sigma(TEa/sd), method sigma(TEa-|bias|/sd) and total error(TE) of each the 19 items were calculated and the calculated total errors of 19 items were compared with the CLIA'88 allowable total errors(TEa). Contol limits for internal quality control procedures were established according to the method sigma levels and probability for false rejection(Pfr), probability for error detection(Ped), average run length for false rejection(ARLfr) and average run length for error detection(ARLed) according to the control limit levels were estimated. RESULTS: Out of total 19 items, 8 items such as albumin, glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, uric acid, total bilirubin, GGT and LDH satisfied the CLIA'88 TEa criteria and 11 items such as total protein, total calcium, inorganic phosphorus, BUN, creatinine, AST, ALT, ALP, sodium, potassium and chloride didn't satisfied. In the 11 items not satisfying CLIA'88 TEa criteria, 6 items such as BUN, creatinine, AST, ALT, sodium and chloride had the method sigma below 1.65 and control limits for internal quality control procedure could not be established. Control limits of the other 13 items were established according to the method sigma leves. In case of 6 method sigma level, Pfr were estimated to be 0.000007 and Ped to be 1.0000 and ARLfr to be 146910 and ARLed to be 1.00. CONCLUSION: The integrated data from both the internal and external quality control results were very useful in assessment of the quality status of the tests and in designing and planning the internal quality control procedures such as control limits.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Bilirubin ; Calcium ; Chemistry ; Cholesterol ; Creatinine ; Glucose ; Phosphorus ; Potassium ; Quality Control* ; Sodium ; Tea ; Triglycerides ; Uric Acid

Generally, mammalian cells and living tissues can be cryopreserved in a frozen state at very low temperatures over a long storage term. The survival rate of cell suspensions is often acceptable however, living tissues suffer a variety of injuries. In this paper, it was demonstrated that the addition of polyphenols extracted from green tea to conventional cell culture medium and tissue compatible liquid, can control cell proliferation and also preserve tissues for several months at ordinary room temperature, including such tissues as blood vessels, cartilage, islet cells and corneas. This protocol allows a non-frozen living tissue bank to be established using the preservation fluid described.
Animals ; Flavonoids/*pharmacology ; Humans ; Organ Preservation Solutions/*pharmacology ; Phenols/*pharmacology ; Tea/*chemistry ; *Tissue Banks ; *Tissue Preservation ; *Tissue Transplantation ; Transplantation, Homologous

Experiments were carried out with citrus (Citrus reticulate) and tea (Podocarpus fleuryi Hickel.) to study the effects of compound fertilizers on their yields and quality. In the citrus experiment, application of compound fertilizers increased available P, K and Mg contents in soil but decreased alkali-hydrolyzable N contents in soil and N, P and K contents in leaves. In the tea experiment, application of compound fertilizers increased available P, K and Mg contents in soil and N, P, K and Mg contents in leaves but decreased alkali-hydrolyzable N in soil compared with the urea treatment. Application of compound fertilizers could improve the quality of citrus and tea, increase their yields and enhance their economical profits significantly. Compared with the control, application of compound fertilizers increased citrus yields by 6.31, 12.94 and 17.69 t/ha, and those of tea by 0.51, 0.86 and 1.30 t/ha, respectively. Correspondingly, profits were increased by 21.4% to 61.1% for citrus and by 10.0% to 15.7% for tea. Optimal rates of compound fertilizers were recommended for both crops.
Citrus ; growth & development ; Crops, Agricultural ; economics ; standards ; Fertilizers ; Fruit ; standards ; Plant Leaves ; chemistry ; Soil ; analysis ; Tea ; growth & development ; standards

Animals ; Free Radicals ; metabolism ; Hepatocytes ; metabolism ; Male ; Obesity ; metabolism ; Polyphenols ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Tea ; chemistry

AIMTo determine whether repetitive exposure to high sustained +Gz acceleration induces persisting changes in the myocardial free radical metabolism and observe the protective effects of low-G training and antioxidant tea polyphenols (TP).

METHODSThirty-two male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups (n=8 each): group A, restrained, was only submitted to +1 Gz for 5 min. Group B, centrifuged, was exposed to five plateaus of 30 s at +10 Gz for intermittent times, three times a week, for three weeks. Group C, low-G trained, was exposed to +2 Gz for 5 min about 1 h prior to +10 Gz stress, and group D was orally given TP at dose of 200 mg/kg about 1 h prior to +10 Gz stress. On the next day morning after last centrifuge run, the rats were decapitated and the hearts were quickly removed. Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity were measured. Additionally, CuZn-SOD and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) enzymatic contents were examined by immunohistochemical staining and their mRNA were analyzed by semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).

RESULTSCompared with group A, MDA concentration and iNOS enzymatic content in myocardial mitochondria were increased significantly (P < 0.05) in group B. Compared with group B, mitochondrial SOD activity was significantly increased in group C (P < 0.05). iNOS enzymatic content was significantly decreased in group C and D. There were no significant differences of CuZn-SOD content, CuZn-SOD and iNOS mRNA levels among the four groups.

CONCLUSIONRepeated high +Gz exposure can induce myocardial free radical metabolic disorder and mainly result in mitochondrial peroxidative injury. But low-G training and natural antioxidant TP have protective effects, and the former is better.

Acceleration ; Adaptation, Physiological ; physiology ; Animals ; Free Radicals ; metabolism ; Male ; Myocardium ; metabolism ; Polyphenols ; pharmacology ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Tea ; chemistry

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of tea polyphenols on the proliferation of human prostate cancer cells and its possible mechanism.

METHODSWe cultured androgen-independent prostate cancer DU145 cells in the medium with different concentrations (50, 100, 250 and 500 microg/ml) of tea polyphenols, and those in the normal medium as the control. After 48 hours of culture, we detected the survival rate of the cells by MTT assay and determined the expression of survivin by Western blot and quantitative RT-PCR.

RESULTSAt 48 hours, the survival rates of the prostate cancer DU145 cells were 0.97 +/- 0.12, 0.71 +/- 0.07, 0.20 +/- 0.03 and 0.08 +/- 0.01 in the 50, 100, 250 and 500 microg/ml tea polyphenols treatment groups, all significantly reduced as compared with the control group (P < 0.01) except that of the 50 microg/ml group (P = 0.42). Furthermore, the survival rate continued to decrease with the prolonging of time, dropping below 5% at 96 hours except in the 50 microg/ml group. The grey values of the survivin expression in the 100, 250 and 500 microg/ml tea polyphenols groups were 13 425 +/- 34, 2 017 +/- 24 and 1 274 +/- 22, respectively, at 48 hours, significantly lower than 15 075 +/- 48 in the control group (P < 0.01). Moreover, the content of survivin mRNA at 48 hours was markedly lower in the 50, 100, 250 and 500 microg/ml treatment groups (0.74 +/- 0.03, 0.64 +/- 0.02, 0.52 +/- 0.01 and 0.21 +/- 0.02) than in the control (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONTea polyphenols can inhibit the proliferation of human prostate cancer DU145 cells, which may be associated with the decreased expression of the survivin gene.

Cell Line, Tumor ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Humans ; Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins ; metabolism ; Male ; Polyphenols ; pharmacology ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; pathology ; Tea ; chemistry