Herbal beverages formulations and bioactive properties: a comparative study.

Herbal beverages are among the main products which claim medicinal benefits, specially related with antioxidant properties [1,2]. The definition of herbal beverages (“teas”) as functional drinks might be related with the plant species from which is prepared, formulation or preparation method. In this study the beverages were prepared from Camellia sinensis (black and green tea), Aspalathus linearis (red tea) and Cochlospermum angolensis (borututu tea), available in different formulations (bags, leaves, roots, granulates, powders or liquids), after infusion, solubilisation or by simple direct use. Further than single plants, some mixtures composed by different fruits, plants or algae extracts were also evaluated. For a better understanding of the bioactive potential of these products, the DF50 (dilution factor responsible for 50% of antioxidant activity, AA) was calculated for all the AA assays (scavenging effects, reducing power and lipid peroxidation inhibition). Linear discriminant analysis was used to categorize tea formulations according with their AA and antioxidant compounds.