Green tea trumps rivals for antioxidant and antimicrobial properties

Korean researchers examined extracts from 11 different teas, including several herbal teas, rooibos as well as green and black tea for their antioxidant and anti microbial properties. The potential being for natural preservatives and killing bacteria in food.

They also wanted to find a minimum lethal dose for 2 oral pathogens, and to look at the antimicrobial effectiveness for 3 food borne pathogens.

• Streptococcus mutans
• Streptococcus sobrimus
• Listeria monocytogenes
  
• Shigella flexneri
• Salmonella enterica

The findings included:

• green tea ethanol extract had the highest antioxidant activity
• green and black tea water extract had considerable antioxidant activity
• rosemary, mate and persimmon leaf ethanol extracts had considerable antioxidant activity
• green tea ethanol extract had potent antimicrobial activity against all five pathogens
• mate tea water extract the most effective against the Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus sobrimus and Listeria monocytogenes (gram positive bacteria)

Can read the original article on the study here:

Green tea trumps rivals for antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.