The study found that lemons and tea go even better together than their popularity might suggest. Lemon juice caused 80 percent of tea's catechins to remain. Following lemon, in terms of stabilizing power, were orange, lime and grapefruit juices.
Ferruzzi said both vitamin C and citrus juices must interact with catechins to prevent their degradation in the intestines, although data made it clear that citrus juices have stabilizing effects beyond what would be predicted solely based on their vitamin C content.
"If you want more out of your green tea, add some citrus juice to your cup after brewing or pick a ready-to-drink product formulated with ascorbic acid," Ferruzzi said.
Although this study only examined green tea, Ferruzzi said he suspects that some of the results also could apply to black tea, which is produced by fermenting green tea.
Presently, Ferruzzi is conducting an in vivo study, or study on a live organism, to quantify the ability of juices and vitamin C to increase levels of catechins in the intestines and bloodstream of animals and, by extension, in humans.
"This study tells us a lot of interesting things, but it raises many questions that have yet to be answered," he said.
The study is published in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
Source-ANI
SRM/P