Determination of Chlorogenic Acid Levels In Selected Kenyan Tea Cultivars by HPLC-PDA

Abstract

Tea, a beverage that is consumed worldwide, contains several bioactive compounds. They include Chlorogenic Acid (CGA) which has been reported to be of health benefits. In this study, CGA levels were assessed in 17 Kenyan tea cultivars. Two leaves and a bud were sampled by hand plucking from a clonal trial set in Timbilil estate, Kericho County. A Chinese herb, Moringa oleifera, was included for comparison purposes as it is known to have high levels of CGA. The leaves of the Moringa oleifera tree have been reported to demonstrate antioxidant activity due to its high amount of polyphenols. A wide variety of nutritional and medicinal virtues have been attributed to it partly due to amounts of CGA in it. This is an indication that some of the Kenyan tea cultivars used in this study would have health benefits equivalent to those attributed to Moringa oleifera. The screening was done using a High Performance Liquid Chromatography (Shimadzu, Japan) equipped with a photo-diode array detector (SPD-M20A). The Chlorogenic acid levels ranged between 4.2 mg/g – 22.0 mg/g in the selected Kenyan tea cultivars, while Moringa oleifera had about 25.0 mg/g.