Rooibos Tea High Polyphenol Equals High Antioxidants

Rooibos also called, red tea, is primarily found in South Africa and has been picked, fermented and drunk as a tea for more than 300 hundred years. The indigenous inhabitants of the mountain regions of South Africa’s Western Cape were the first to collect wild rooibos. They discovered that they could brew a sweet, tasty tea from the bushes leaves and stems.

I only discovered this tea in late 2008 from doing research for this web site. It has since become my favorite tea. I enjoy the taste much better than the greens and blacks. Because of red teas low tannin content there is no acid after taste as in other teas. Red tea like many plants around the world has a heavy amount of polyphenols. These polyphenols are full of healthy antioxidant nutrients which are high in health benefits and low in calories.
Despite many claims to the contrary red tea tea has less total phenol content than does green and black tea. However I found that red tea is a good substitute because of the taste difference. Red tea seems to have a more widely varied assortment of phenol which probably give it a very favorable synergistic effect and is still high on the healthy drink list.

Polyphenols are a group of chemical compounds that are common in fruits, vegetables and other plants. Polyphenols are divided into sub groups and the ones in red tea are flavonoids and phenolic acids. The flavonoid Aspalathin is unique to red tea. It is the only natural source known at this time. The flavonoids in red tea are as follows
• Aspalathin
• Nothofagin
• Quercetin
• Rutin
• Isoquercitrin
• Orientin
• Isoorientin
• Luteolin
• Vitexin
• Isovitexin
• Chrysoeriol

Red tea also contains phenolic acids which also have antioxidant activities. The acids in the tea are caffeic acid, protocatechuic acid, syringic acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and p-coumaric acid. Rooibos tea also has slight amounts of some vitamins and minerals but strangely has no vitamin C.Many athletes in South Africa use Rooibos tea as fluid replacement for its minerals and electrolytes.

Two of the flavonoids red tea tea, quercetin and luteolin, are potent antioxidants. Test tube studies show these antioxidants can cause cancer cells to "commit suicide. Quercetin decreased primary tumor growth and prevented metastasis in a model of pancreatic cancer.they also inhibited proliferation of thyroid and colon cancer cells, respectively, in vitro.

All teas green, black, white and red have high antioxidant activity. Green tea is fairly well accepted as the highest in antioxidants but the amount is not significant enough to make a difference in my opinion. All are healthy drinks so enjoy the one you like best or like I do drink a variety of them.

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