2022 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 181-187
Tea Leaf is one of the traditional food in Myanmar. It is eaten as well as drunk with two main forms which are wet tea leaf (Myanmar name, Lahpet so) and dried tea leaf (Myanmar name, Lahpet chauk). Tea leaves can be picked starting from April until October. At Namhsan area, Northern Shan State in Myanmar, tea leaves are generally divided into six kinds depending on the plucked season. There are "Shwephi-Oo", "Shwephi-Hnaung", "Khakan-Oo", "Khakan-Hnaung", "Kha-Naing", and "Kha-Hawt" or "Hnin Tet". In this study, some nutritional value and antioxidant activities of six kinds of dried tea leaves in Namhsan region were evaluated by the aiming of which kind of dried tea leaves have the best quality for consumers. The analyses included examination of the dried tea leaves were their nutritional value (carbohydrate, protein, and amino acids), assessment of selected minerals, caffeine, catechin mixture, dietary fiber and total ash. Nutritional contents of tea leaves were examined by preliminary phytochemical screening method and the selected mineral contents (Ca, Zn, Fe, Mn) were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). Total ash contents were determined by ignition method. Antioxidant activities of dried tea leaves were evaluated by the DPPH free radical scavenging assay. Caffeine and catechin mixture (flavonoid) were extracted by using chemical reagents such as dichloromethane and chloroform. From the observed results, dried tea leaves in Namhsan region were rich in mineral contents (2.33-5.48 mg/kg of Ca, 1.40- 1.94 mg/kg of Zn, 1.06-1.77 mg/kg of Fe and 8.06-21.06 mg/kg of Mn), 0.525-3.413% protein, 8-11.5% crude fiber, 4.20-7.39% total ash, 0.075-0.200% caffeine, 0.4-2.0% catechin mixture and high antioxidant activities (2.3-5.9 ìg/L, IC50 value of DPPH scavenging assay) were found. Based on the studied nutritional values and antioxidant activity results, Shwephi-Oo dried tea leave was confirmed that the best quality.
