Kancharapara Harnett English Medium

School

Name: Piyal Bhowmick

Class – XII
Section – A
Roll No – 25

Topic name: “Tea”

Teacher: Pratim Mitra
 Certificate
This is to certify that Piyal Bhowmick of class XII, sec – A has
successfully complete his chemistry investigatory project. He has taken
proper care and utmost sincerity in completion of his project. All the
works related to the project was done by the candidate himself. The
approach towards the subject has been sincere and scientific.
I verify that this project is up to my expectations and as
per the guidelines issued by the CBSE.

Subject Teacher’s Signature Principal’s Signature

Examiner’s Signature
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my

teacher “Mr. Pratim Mitra” and also to the principal “Mr Shymal Kumar
Banerjee” who gave `me a golden opportunity to do this wonderful project,
which also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know many
newt things. I also like to thank my parents for providing me with necessary
equipment.

Student’s signature
 Introduction
Tea is a beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured
leaves of tea plant-“Camellia Sinenis”. After water, tea is most widely consumed
breverage in the world. Some teas, like Darjeeling and Chinese greens, have a
cooling, slightly bitter & astringent flavour while others have vastly different
profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral or grassy notes.
Tea originated in China where it was used as a medicinal drink. It was
introduced by the Portuguese priests’ merchants in Europe during 16th century.
During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among Britain. The
British introduced it in India, in order to compete with the Chinese monopoly on
the product.
Tea has been promoted for having a variety of positive health benefits. Recent
studies show that green tea may help reduce risk of cardiovascular diseases,
promotes oral health, reduce blood pressure, help with weight control, improve
antibacterial and antivirastic activity, and provide protection from solar
ultraviolet light. Green tea is also said to have “antibiotic “properties, and neuro
protective power. Additional research is needed to fully understand its
contribution to human health and is advised to regular consume tea in western
diets.
Tea characins have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, help
regulate food intake, and have an affinity for cannabinoid receptors, which may
suppress pain and nausea and provide calming effects.
Consumption of green tea is associated with lower risk of disease that causes
functional disability, such as stroke, coegative impairment, and osteoporosis in the
elderly.
 Experiment-2
Aim
To compare the tannic acid content of various samples of tea.

Requirements
 Beakers
 Conical flasks
 Funnel
 Heating arrangement
 Various samples of tea
 Calcium carbonate
 Concentrated HCL

Theory
The tannic acid present in tea leaves is precipitated as calcium
tannate by treatment of aqueous solution of tea with calcium
carbonate .Calcium tannate is then hydrolysed with concentrated
HCL and recrystallized from water .
Procedure
 Weighed 10 g of each of the given samples of tea leaves.
 Taken 100 ml of distilled water in a 400 ml beaker and boiled
it. Then added the first samples of tea leaves to it and boiled
for 10 minutes. Cooled and filtered the solution.
 To the filtrate added about 2 g of solid calcium carbonate and
boiled the contents. Tannic acid gets precipitated as calcium
tannate. Separated the precipitate of calcium tannate by
filtration.
 Calcium tannate obtained as hydrolysed by warming with 4-5
ml of concentrated HCL. The tannic acid obtained is
crystallised from water and weighed.
 Repeated the above steps with other samples of tea and
recorded the observation.

Observation
Serial Brand name of tea Weight of tea Weight of tannic % of tannic
no samples Leaves taken acid obtained acid
1 Mist valley 10 g 3.2 g 32 %
2 Red label 10 g 3.2 g 32 %
3 Tata tea 10 g 3.2 g 32 %
4 Taj tea 10 g 3.2 g 32 %

Result
The tea sample containing higher percentage of tannic acid
gives better flavour.
 Experiment-1
Aim
Compare the water soluble polyphenol contents in various samples of
leaves.
Requirements
Conical flask, funnel, heating arrangement, tea samples.
Theory
Tea contains upto 30 % of the water soluble polyphenols. These are
largely responsible for flavour of the tea. To estimate the extent of these
compounds in a given sample, the leaves are immersed in hot water for
equal time and the loss in the weight of tea leaves is determined.
Procedure
 Weighed exactly 5 g of each of the different samples of tea and
placed them in tea bags.
 Taken four conical flasks and put 100 ml of the hot water to each
of them.
 Put tea bags of different samples of tea in different conical flasks.
After 10 minutes removed the tea bags and dried them by placing
in an oven.
 When the tea bags become dry, reweighed them.
 Noted the flavour of tea solution obtained.
 Observations
Serial no Brand name of Initial Final Loss of % of water
tea sample weight weight weight soluble
component
1 Mist valley 5 g 3.75 g 1.25 g 25%
2 Red label 5 g 3.90 g 1.10 g 22%
3 Tata tea 5 g 3.50 g 1.50 g 30%
4 Taj tea 5 g 3.35 g 1.67 g 33.4%

Result
The tea having better flavour has more polyphenol content.
Tea contains L-theanine, an amino acid whose consumption is
mildly associated with a calm but alert and focused, relatively
productive (alpha wave-dominant) mental state in human beings.
This mental state is also common to meditative practice.

The phase herbal tea refers to infusions of fruit or herbs made

without the tea plant, such as rosehip tea, chamomile tea, or
rooibos tea. Alternative phrases for this are “Thisane” or herbal
infusion, both bearing an implied contrast with “Tea” as it is
commonly construed.

Tannic acid is a specific commercial for of tannin, a type of

polyphenol. Its weak acidity (pKa around 10) is due to the
numerous phenol groups in the structure. The chemical formula for
commercial tannic acid is often given as C76H52O46, which
corresponds with decagalloyl glycose, but in fact it is a mixture of
polygallolyl glucoses or polygalloylquinic acid esters with the
number of galloyl moieties per molecule ranging from 2 up to 12
depending on the plant source used to extract the tannic acid is
usually extracted from any of the following plant part : Tara pods
(Caesalpiniaspinosa), gallnuts from Rhussemialata or
Quercusinfectoria or Sicilian Sumac leaves (Rhuscoroaroa).

According to the definition provided in the external references such

as international pharmacopoeia, Food chemical codex and FAO-
WHO tannic acid monograph only tannins sourced from the above
mentioned plants can be considered as tannic acid. Sometimes
extracts from chestnuts or oak wood are also described as tannic
acid but this is an incorrect use of the term. It is a yellow to light
brown amorphous powder which is highly soluble in water; one
gram dissolves in 0.35 ml of water.

While tannic acid is a specific type of tannin (plant polyphenol),

the terms are sometimes (incorrectly) used interchangeably. The long
standing misuse of the terms, and its inclusion in scholarly articles
has compounded the confusion. This is particularly widespread in
relation to green tea and black tea, both of which tannin but no
tannic acid.

Tannic acid is not an appropriate standard for any type of tannin

analysis of its poorly defined composition.

The earliest widely accepted definition of polyphenols, the White-

Bate-Smith-Swan Hasiam (WBSSH) definition, was offered and
justified by natural product and organic chemist Edwin Hasiam
and co-workers, based on the earlier natural products research of
Edgar Charles Bate-Smith, Anthony Swain and Theodore White
that characterized specific structural characteristics common to
plant phenolics used in tanning (i.e thetannins). The WBSSH
describes the polyphenol class as:
 Generally moderately water-soluble compounds,
 With molecular weight of 500-4000 Da,
  With >12 phenolic hydroxyl groups, and
 With 5-7 aromatic rings per 1000 Da.
Where the limits to these regions are somewhat flexible. The
definition further states that polyphenols display unique physical
and chemical behaviour related to their high molecular weights and
profusion of phenolic substructures-precipitation of proteins and
particular amine-containing organics (e.g particular alkanoid
natural products), and formation of particular metal complexes (e.g
intense blue-black iron(III) complexes).

The definition Quideau definition of polyphenols

The need to clarify the definition of polyphenols in the light of the

extensive research into this large substances class and of increasingly
ambigious use of the polyphenol term led StephaneQuideau,
Bordeaux 1 university, France, to offer a definition not given formal
status by IUPAC.

The term “polyphenol” should be used to define compounds exclusively derived from
the shikimate/phenylpropanoid and/or the polyketide pathway, featuring more than
one phenolic unit and deprived of nitrogen-based functions.

Structurally, this definition continues to steer the definition away

from exclusively man-made structures without corresponding
natural products and explicity excludes mono-phenolic structures
(man-made or naturally occurying) and their derivaties, e.g., phenyl
esters, methyl ethers and O-phenyl glyccsides. This definition departs
from the WBSSH definition in terms of physciochemical behaviour,
with its lacks of reference to solubility, precipitation, and
complexation phenomena.

Ellagic acid, a dimer of gallic acid and a core-type component of

polyphenols.

Raspberry ellagitannin, tannin composed of 14 gallic acid units

around a core of three units of glucose, with two gallic acids as
simple esters and the remaining 12 appearing in 6 ellagic acid-type
units. Esters, ether, and biaryl linkages are present, see above.
The gallic acid dimer, ellagic acid, a molecule at the core of naturally
occurring phenolic compounds of varying sizes, is itself not a
polyphenol by the WBSSH defination, but is by the Quideau
defination. The raspberry ellagitannin, on the other hand, with its
14 gallic acid moieties (most in ellagic acid type components) and
more 40 phenolic hydroxyl groups meets the criteria of both
definations of a polyphenol. Other examples of compounds that fail
under both the WBSSH and Quideau definations include the black
tea antioxidant “Theaflavin-3-galliate” shown below, and the
hydrolysable tannin, tannic acid shown above.

Theaflavin-3-galliate derived polyphenol formed by esterification of

two equivalents of gallic acid to atheaflavin core .Note two of the
phenolic hydroxyl group required to meet the phenol-count criterion
of the WBSSH definition points are engaged in ether linkages.
 Defining chemical reactions of the polyphenol class

Individual polyphenols engage in reactions related to both their

core phenolics structures, linkages and types of glycosides they
form. Standard phenolic reactions include ionization (which
contributes to solubility and complexation) oxidation to ortho- and
para- quinones (which contributes to antioxidant characteristics),
and underline aromatic transformations related to their linkage
include nucleophilic additions, and oxidative and hydrolytic bond
cleavage in addition, as noted above, a traditional feature of
polyphenols was their ability to particular, characteristics metal
complexes.

Chemical Structure and synthesis

Structural features
As opposed to smaller phenols, and polyphenols are often larger
molecules (macromolecules) deposited in cell vacuoles. The upper
molecular weight first for small molecules is approximately 800
daltons, which allows for the possibility to rapidly diffuse across cell
membranes so that they can reach intercellular-sites of action or
remain as pigments once the cell senesces. Hence, many larger
polyphenols are biosynthesised in situ from smaller polyphenols to
non hydrolyzated tannins and remain undiscovered in the plant
matrix. Most polyphenols contain repeating phenolic moieties of
pyrocatechol, resorcinol, pyrogallol and phlorogluciniol connected
By ester (hydrolysable tannins) or more stable C-C bonds (non-
hydrolysable condensed tannins). Proanthocyanidins are most stable
polymeric units of catechin and epicatechin. Catechol- and
resorcinol- (benzenediol-) types of polyphenols have two and
pyrogallol- and phlorogluciniol-(benzenetriol-) types have three
phenolic hydroxyl groups, respectively through mixing of these types
within polyphenols is also possible. The phenolic substructures arise
from various biosynthetic pathways (WBSSH definition) especially
phenylpropanoid and polyketide branches aimed at plant and related
secondary metabolities (both definations).

The C-glucoside substructure of polyphenols as exemplified by the

phenol saccharide conjugate puerarin, mid-molecular weight plant
natural product. Note the attachment of the phenol to the
saccharide is via a C-C bond. The isoflavone and its 10-atom
benzopyran “fused system”, also a structural feature here, is common
in polyphenols.
Polyphenols always have heteroatom substituents other than
hydroxyl group ether and esters linkages are common as are various
carboxylic acid derivatives (see theaflavingallate image); ester
linkages are common in the hydrolysable tannins. Apart from simple
heteroatom links the carbon frameworks can become complex e.g
various C-C bond linkages join hydrolytically esters and ethers as
common in non-hydrolysable condensed tannins.

The biphenyl/biaryl substructure of polyphenols here as prepared by

synthetic chemists using the copper-mediated Ullman reaction. The
C-C bond in biaryls in nature is also synthesised through a metal-
mediated coupling reaction often involving iron. The biaryl
substructures can be seen in ellagic acid above.
An example of the spiro-type substructure found in polyphenols-
where two rings are joined at a single shared point-with illustration
of the two stereoisomers that can arise here R (rectus) and S (sinster)
based on the CIP system to describe the stereochemistry.
In these diverse biosynthetic steps abound the 7-atom ring (7-
membered ring) appearing in theaflavin structure above is an
example of a “Carbocycle” that is of a non-benzoid aromatic
tropolone type. In addition there are periodic occurrences of:

 Benzopyrans and normal and C-glucoside derivatives (figure at

right)-e.g in condensed, complex and hydrolysable tannins such
as in stenophyllanin A, acutissimin B, mongolician A,
stenophynin A, mongolicanin and mongolicin B.
 Various biaryls and triaryls (e.g biphenyls), see further at right
 Spiro-type structures as illustrated right e.g in mongolicain A
 Furanoid, pyrone and other heterocycles
 Methyl (diaryl) structures
 Pyrans and dioxins, etc.