Rapid electrochemical screening of antioxidant capacity (RESAC) of selected tea samples

Antioxidants found in the daily diets behave as chemopreventive agents to inactivate potentially harmful reactive oxygen species present in our organisms. Consequently, it will be quite important to have easy-to-use diagnostic tools to dose antioxidant food ingredients.A method for a robust and rapid electrochemical screening of antioxidant capacity (RESAC) has been developed. To assess the suitability of the developed testing method, different tea varieties were evaluated for their antioxidant capacity. Results obtained with the RESAC method were highly correlated with conventional photometric antioxidant assay like FRAP (0.9457) and DPPH (0.9511).The newly developed RESAC method is easy to use, fast and at a low price. This method is well suited for quality control and may facilitate future studies regarding alteration of antioxidant capacity during growth, storage and processing of food or medicinal plants.

Research highlights
► Antioxidant capacity is quantifiable by a rapid electrochemical screening (RESAC).
► RESAC method needs only some seconds and few chemicals are employed.
► RESAC method is well suited for quality and specification control.