Identification, Isolation and Antioxidant Activity of Pheophytin from Green Tea (Camellia Sinensis (L.) Kuntze)

Tea is a plant that can grow in different countries in the world. Green tea is one of the types of tea which is most beneficial for health such as anticarcinogenic, antibacterial, antitumor, antivirus, and antioxidant. In this research, identification of green tea pigments (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) were conducted by using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with photodiode array detector. By TLC analysis, five spots were detected and they were β-carotene, pheophytin a, chlorophyll b, xanthophyll, and pheophorbide a. An analysis using HPLC showed the existence of 14 peaks consisting of 10 chlorophyll peaks and their derivatives as well as four carotenoid peaks. Pheophytin isolation was conducted using column chromatography and antioxidant activity was assayed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Antioxidant activity of pheophytin a IC50 = (573 ± 0.23) mg · L–1 corresponded to that of β-carotene marker IC50 = (550 ± 0.26) mg · L–1. Antioxidant activity of the green tea crude extract had IC50 = (250 ± 0.21) mg · L–1 which was twice higher than β-carotene marker.