7 replies to this topic

[Mr Serendipity]

http://www.mendeley....od-preparation/

 

 

Recent interest into the possible benefits of l-theanine found in tea has raised the issue that there are few data available on amounts of l-theanine contained in cups of commercially-available teas, prepared by a standard method. HPLC along with a standard method of preparing tea was employed here to determine amounts of l-theanine in cups of tea and the effects that various preparation factors have on amounts of l-theanine extracted. Brewing time was found to be a major determinant of the amount of l-theanine extracted, while the addition of small amounts of milk and sugar made no significant difference. High levels of milk resulted in a marked lowering of the level of detectable l-theanine. Contrary to previous research, a standard (200. ml) cup of black tea was found to contain the most l-theanine (24.2 ?? 5.7. mg) while a cup of green tea contained the least (7.9 ?? 3.8. mg). ?? 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

 

I was looking for how much theanine was in black tea, as we keep hearing green tea is the best place to go. Then I come across this. Now if this is the case, I'll keep drinking my tasty black tea which has less flouride and more theanine in it.

 

But this is just 1 study. Can anyone find any more info on this?

[medicineman]

and less egcg, which is why most of us prefer green tea.

[normalizing]

manny, whats the point you are making here, im confused. even 50mg theanine is not clinically significant. you need at least 200mg+ as in the supplement dose prefered. most people, if you use search engine, use up to 1-2 grams of the stuff in ability to report anything positive.

[Mr Serendipity]

Well I've read a lot of anecdotal reports of people getting a nootropic effect from drinking more green tea. So my guess was the famous theanine and caffeine combo. And I wouldn't underestimate the power of small doses, several times a day, over a long period. To a lot of people just drinking green tea has a real nootropic effect. So unless it is the ECGC that is enhancing this effect, I can only conclude it's the theanine and caffeine.

 

But I'm not sure how you're defining clinically significant. Clinically significant for what? Where are the studies.

Edited by manny, 01 August 2014 - 09:31 AM.

[tazzz96]

By black tea, is that just normal tea that we all drink, ie teabags?

[Mr Serendipity]

yeah

[gamesguru]

Your study indicated

For black: 25 mg in 200 mL, or 125 mg/L

For green: 8 mg in 200 mL, or 32 mg/L

 

I've attached a conflicting study, drawing attention to "Table 1", which gives values of 234 mg/mL for Sencha and 257 mg/L for Gyokuro...a far cry from the 32 mg/L reported in the original post. It compares to the value of 43 mg/mL for second flush of Sencha. One could hope this study is accurate and that first flush Sencha contains roughly twice the theanine of black tea.  And if you want to avoid theanine for whatever reason, know that the second flush won't provide you much. 

Attached Files

•  1-s2.0-S0021967396007649-main.pdf   229.91KB   8 downloads

Edited by gamesguru, 16 January 2015 - 10:04 PM.

[jjnz]

I asked this question of our Local Tea Brewer in NZ,

 

"As a general rule there is approximately 20mg of L-theanine in a standard cup of tea.

This will vary though by origin, climate, type of tea, production method etc."

With a rough average of 50 mg of caffeine in a standard cup of black tea.

Again this will vary a great deal by the above factors and also how much tea is used, brewing time and so on."