Synergistic Antioxidant Activity of Tea with Ginger, Black Pepper and Tulsi

Food nutrients having antioxidant potential have been a major focus of research in recent years because they were regarded as magic bullets that could help to prevent many human diseases such as cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer, Parkinson and cardiovascular diseases, etc. In the present research, the four plants namelytea (Camellia sinensis), ginger (Zingiber officinale), black pepper (Piper nigrum) and tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) have been selected as all these plants show antioxidant potential individually. People used to drink tea often by boiling it with ginger, black pepper and tulsi. However there is no data available on the antioxidant activity of these four plants in synergism. The aim of the present study was to study the antioxidant potential of the different combinations of above plants by 1,1,-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl assay. Appropriate combinations of all the four plants extract showed best antioxidant activity.