Improvement of stability of tea polyphenols: a review.

Tea polyphenols have received much attention from the pharmaceutical and food industries owing to their extraordinary antioxidant and antibacterial characteristics. However, tea polyphenols are very unstable to processing and storage, since they are sensitive to the environmental factors like temperature, light and pH. Therefore, the effective application of tea polyphenols requires a protective mechanism to maintain its activity. The utilization of compounded tea polyphenols, instead of raw materials, can potentially help to improve their stability. This review focuses on the summarization of the compounding technologies for tea polyphenols, including physical technologies, chemical-interfacial technologies and nano-scale compounding technologies. Of which, the emerging nanocellulose bio-carrier, as a promising technology, is particularly proposed.