Antioxidant Activities of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and Telang Flower (Clitoria ternatea L.) Combination Tea

Tea is known as one of the favorite beverages globally, together with coffee and cocoa. Tea has been used as a health product or medicinal drug to prevent and treat various diseases. Herbal tea has become one of the most sought-after beverages often consumed by the people for health purposes. This paper reports the antioxidant activities of a herbal tea combination from dried ginger and telang flower (Clitoria ternatea), which is referred to as JaTe in Indonesian, as the abbreviation of Jahe (Ginger, Zingiber officinale) and Telang flower (Clitoria ternatea). The experiment was conducted at the general laboratory of the Biomolecular and Biomedical Research Center, Aretha Medika Utama, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, during the period of November 2021 to the end of December 2021. The JaTe tea was made by combining 2 g dried ginger and 5 buds telang flower that were boiled in 200 mL for 5 minutes. The dried ginger tea, dried telang tea, and JaTe tea were evaluated for the antioxidant activities. The total phenolic and flavonoid content was evaluated by Folin-Ciocalte using the Gallic Acid Equivalent (GAE), while the flavonoid content was evaluated using the Quercetin Equivalent (QE) and the aluminum chloride colorimetric assay. The antioxidant activity was measured using 2,2-diphenyl-1picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-Azino-Bis-3-Ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) while the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging activities was measured using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. This study showed that ginger tea, telang tea, and JaTe tea formulations have antioxidant activities due to its low IC50 values. The highest phenolic content and flavonoid content was counx in ginger tea with 23.62 μg GAE/100% concentration, followed by telang tea with 7.22 μg QE/100% concentration. JaTe tea has the strongest ABTS scavenging activity with IC50= 1.01% and FRAP activity with IC50=3.59 %. Meanwhile, the ginger tea has the strongest DPPH scavenging activity with an IC50 value of 7.76 % and an H2O2 scavenging activity with IC50=13.23 %. Overall, JaTe herbal tea formulation has a strong antioxidant activity.