Drinking green tea in its purest form or in the form of its supplements; has gained the utmost importance. And, all because of its validated health benefits.
However, green tea consumed in the supplement form is different from its consumption in a way of the brewed style. The big question here is, how and why?
The components of green tea extracts include polyphenols having catechins, tannins, phenolic acids, flavanols, etc. It has xanthine in large amounts, i.e., caffeine and caffeine-related content.
It further has vitamin B and C content along with L-theanine in the form of amino acids.
Moreover, green tea contains all the essential oils, and other microelements like manganese, fluorides, aluminium, etc.
Among these components, the ones that are most effective to the body are catechins having epigallocatechin gallate, EGCG.
It has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic properties that are primarily extracted to form green tea supplement capsules.
Green tea as a drink
Making a brewed green tea is not a consistent activity.
It is prepared at different water temperatures, with different quantity of tea leaves, and with distinctive steeping time.
And, most importantly, using different brands with different qualities and components of the tea.
However, efforts have been made to research and analyze what is extracted once the tea leaves are steeped in the boiling water for 5 minutes.
The outcome in one of the analyses showed that the brewed tea had 87-106 mg of polyphenols for every gram of dry green tea matter.
Out of this quantity, 52-84 content was catechins and 11-20 mg per gram was caffeine.
Considering that the leaves are not brewed, there are for sure other components mentioned above present in the extract.
So, if we consider having 3 grams of dry leaves in a cup of green tea, then 405 grams of catechins can be absorbed with just 2 cups of green tea every day.
The next question that arises is what if one consumes green tea with milk or lemon?
In that case, researchers say, the tea with lemon improves the withdrawal of polyphenols from the dry content.
However, on the other side, the lemon also shows an increased value of aluminium absorption in the body too.
Coming to the consumption of tea with white milk, the research proves that there has been no difference in the catechin effect in the body.
Green Tea in the form of extracts and supplements
The green tea supplements are generally formed using the catechin and polyphenol extracts.
To obtain these supplements, the tea leaves are crushed and added to organic diluents in order to segregate the green tea polyphenols from the leaves.
Research here asserts that the tea polyphenols are comparatively more soluble in the organic diluents compared to that of in boiling water.
Thus, more quantity of polyphenols may be extracted from the dry green tea.
Coming to the caffeine component, the extraction left quite a lot of amount of caffeine component behind.
Moreover, the extract removes all the harmful metals like aluminium and thus is more of a purified form of green tea.
During the production of these supplements, extra care is taken to ensure more of polyphenols are capsulized form the extract.
Final words
Comparing the study of green tea in the form of brewed drink and in the form of extracts, the catechins (the most important component) in the supplement are almost the same, if not higher, compared to that of in the brewed tea.
Thus, the intake of catechins in any of the forms remains alike.
However, the differences between the two lie definitely in terms of:
- standardization of the active ingredients of the dry green tea,
- components that the brand label says,
- taste preferences,
- amount of caffeine and
- in the auxiliary ingredients.
The consumption thus depends on your preferences and the content requirement of your body.