Anthraquinone in Chinese tea: concentration and health risk assessment

Abstract

Recently, the safety of anthraquinone (AQ) in Chinese tea has received much attention. This study determined the concentration of AQ in 1573 Chinese tea samples by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). It was observed that the total detection rate of AQ was 60.97%, and the mean concentration was 0.0170 mg/kg. The concentration levels of AQ in tea varied by different types of tea, different packaging types, different sale spots and different tea-producing areas. The results of the deterministic assessment show that the health risks associated with daily exposure to AQ via tea consumption are low in different populations in China. For the general population, the mean daily exposure of AQ via tea consumption was (2.50 × 10⁻⁴) µg/kg body weight (BW), 0.0037% of the acceptable daily intake of AQ (6.8 µg/kg BW). In the different sex-age groups, the highest mean daily exposure of AQ via tea consumption was found in the male group aged ≥ 60 years, which was (2.84 × 10⁻⁴) µg/kg BW. The high consumer exposure (95th percentile, P95) was found in the female group aged ≥ 60 years, which was (9.36 × 10⁻⁴) µg/kg BW. Green tea is the main type of tea with AQ exposure by Chinese tea consumers.

Keywords:

• Anthraquinone
• tea
• concentration
• risk assessment
• exposure

Reviewing Editor:

• M. Luisa Escudero-Gilete, Nutrition and Bromatology, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla

Subjects:

• Agriculture & Environmental Sciences
• Food Additives & Ingredients
• Health & Society

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for all the participants and staff involved in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Informed consent

All authors named in the manuscript are entitled to the authorship and have approved the final version of the submitted manuscript. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

Data availability statement

Derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [Yan Song] on request.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Risk Assessment Project of Dietary Intake of Anthraquinone in China (2018-CP-05) and Research on the Safety Assessment and Guarantee System for the Development of China’s Alternative Protein Industry (2022-XZ-57).