Antiantioxidant and antimicrobial activity of herbal teas

Teas made from 18 Hungarian medicinal plants were investigated for their total phenolic content and antioxidant effect as radical scavenging activity using the Folin-Ciocaltau and DPPH assays. Antimicrobial effect of the herbal teas was measured by agar diffusion method. In total, the results showed that the smallflower hairy willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum) had the highest antioxidant effect among the plants studied. Teas made from fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and bean pods (Phaseoli legumen) have the lowest activity. Only four herbal teas showed some antimicrobial activity: the smallflower hairy willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum), common agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria), spearmint (Mentha crispa) and bean pods. At smaller concentrations the relationship found between total phenolic content and radical scavenging activity was linear but with increasing phenol content the antioxidant activity remained the same