A comparative study on the antioxidant activity of selected Philippine herbal teas

<p>Tea ranks as the second most consumed beverage worldwide, surpassed only by water. With an annual production of approximately 2.5 million metric tons of dried tea, its popularity has surged in recent years, largely due to its recognized health benefits, particularly as a rich source of potent antioxidants. This study focused on evaluating the total phenolic content of seven commercial herbal tea samples from the Philippines using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Additionally, antioxidant activity was measured using the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) assays, and the findings were correlated to the phenolic content. The results revealed that mango tea showed the highest phenolic content followed by pito-pito tea. In terms of antioxidant efficacy, the pito-pito tea showed the lowest IC<sub>50</sub> value in the DPPH assay, while mango had the lowest IC<sub>50</sub> value in the ABTS assay, followed closely by pito-pito. A correlation was found between the phenolic content and the antioxidant activities of the teas.</p> <p>published by the <strong> <a href="https://innspub.net/international-journal-of-biosciences/">International Journal of Biosciences (IJB)</a></strong></p>