Redox properties of catechins and enriched green tea extracts effectively preserve L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate: assessment using cyclic voltammetry analysis.

A cyclic voltammetry (CV) study was performed in pH 5.5 Britton-Robinson buffer at room temperature to study the stability of 1mM l-5-methyltetrahydrofolate (l-5-MTHF) in combination with epigallocatechin-gallate-enriched extract (EGCGe) and epigallocatechin-enriched extract (EGCe). The combination of l-5-MTHF with enriched catechin extracts provided enhanced stability of l-5-MTHF over a period of 12h under ambient air conditions at pH 5.5. CV experiments showed that increasing the concentrations of EGCGe or EGCe extracts from 80 to 400mg/L produced a decrease in the second oxidation peak of l-5-MTHF. Thus, we calculated that l-5-MTHF remained at nearly 90% when in the presence of enriched tea extracts, compared to 74% without the tea antioxidants. The catechins responsible for this preservation were EGCG and C, confirmed by LC-MS. Compared to covalent link only low interaction (hydrogen bonds) between the different catechins present in the tea extract would stabilise l-5-MTHF. Rather, it was hypothesised that EGCGe and EGCe were effective agents to preserve l-5-MTHF, through a mechanism that also involved the redox potential of catechins to maintain l-5-MTHF in its reduced form.