What is Green Tea extract?
Green tea extract is a herbal derivative from green tea leaves from the Camellia sinensis plant. Green tea extracts are incredibly popular and highly sought after because of their high antioxidant content and therapeutic and health benefits.
Types of green tea extract:
- Strong infusions - during the strong infusion green tea leaves are processed by soaking them in an aqueous solution of alcohol (aspect content is about 2% w/w).
- Soft extracts ? in order to gain soft extracts, the strong infusion solution is further concentrated to 20-25% (catechin content is about 20% w/w).
- Dry extracts - once the strong infusions have been concentrated to 40-50% solids (with a catechin content of around 25% w/w), they are then sprayed in order to become dehydrated extract and powder. The leftover water content (less than 5% w/w) and the extract are usually processed as a powder that contains inert processing aids in order to become suitable for a variety of uses such as capsules, tablets and dry mixes etc.
- Partly purified extracts - these require a further purification process like solvent extraction or column chromatography techniques, as well as newer techniques like membrane extraction and separation. These techniques are used in order to gain a higher content of catechins including epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epicatechin (EC), with EGCG alone accounting for over 40% of the total content.
Green tea extract supplements are easily accessible in various forms, with one standardised green tea extract capsule equalling 5 cups of green tea. They are ideal for people who may not like the taste of green tea, prefer other types of tea or coffee or dislike hot drinks. Green tea extracts allow you to still gain all the green tea's benefits and they are incredibly sought after by people seeking good health.