Thearubigins are

polymer A polymer (; Greek ''poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic and ...

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some o ...

s that are formed during the

enzymatic oxidation Browning is the process of food turning brown due to the chemical reactions that take place within. The process of browning is one of the chemical reactions that take place in food chemistry and represents an interesting research topic regardin ...

and condensation of two gallocatechins (

epigallocatechin Gallocatechol or gallocatechin (GC) is a flavan-3-ol, a type of chemical compound including catechin, with the gallate residue being in an isomeric trans position. This compound possesses two epimers. The most common, (+)-gallocatechin (GC), C ...

and

epigallocatechin gallate Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), also known as epigallocatechin-3-gallate, is the ester of epigallocatechin and gallic acid, and is a type of catechin. EGCG – the most abundant catechin in tea – is a polyphenol under basic research for it ...

) with the participation of

polyphenol oxidase Polyphenol oxidase (PPO; also polyphenol oxidase i, chloroplastic), an enzyme involved in fruit browning, is a tetramer that contains four atoms of copper per molecule. PPO may accept monophenols and/or ''o''-diphenols as substrates. The ...

s during the fermentation reactions in

black tea Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...

. Thearubigins are red in colour and are responsible for much of the

stain A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. They are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials. Accidental staining may make materials app ...

ing effect of tea. Therefore, a black (fully oxidized) tea often appears red while a green or white tea has a much clearer appearance. The colour of a black tea, however, is affected by many other factors as well, such as the amount of

theaflavin Theaflavin (TF) and its derivatives, known collectively as ''theaflavins'', are antioxidant polyphenols that are formed from the condensation of flavan-3-ols in tea leaves during the enzymatic oxidation (sometimes erroneously referred to as fermen ...

s, another oxidized form of polyphenols. Thearubigins were first studied by Roberts, E. A. H. in the 1960s by the means of

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter ...

or by

fractionation Fractionation is a separation process in which a certain quantity of a mixture (of gases, solids, liquids, enzymes, or isotopes, or a suspension) is divided during a phase transition, into a number of smaller quantities (fractions) in whic ...

paper chromatography Paper chromatography is an analytical method used to separate coloured chemicals or substances. It is now primarily used as a teaching tool, having been replaced in the laboratory by other chromatography methods such as thin-layer chromatograph ...

. They have been identified as

proanthocyanidin Proanthocyanidins are a class of polyphenols found in many plants, such as cranberry, blueberry, and grape seeds. Chemically, they are oligomeric flavonoids. Many are oligomers of catechin and epicatechin and their gallic acid esters. More compl ...

s in 1969. The thearubigins formation has been studied in an in vitro model in 1983. Thearubigins from black tea extracts have been studied by degradation in 1996. Quantification methods were based on Porter's assay in 1995 and separation made on C18 sorbent cartridges in 1992. Some new structures like theacitrin have been proposed in 1997 or in 2003 ( theasinensins A and B). Further studies made use of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry in 2004 and other techniques in 2010. It has been shown in 2009 that thearubigins formation in black tea is correlated with catechins depletion.

References

{{Thearubigin