Re: How does one measure the various contents in tea

Dear Arjun,

First of all, allow me to apologize for being late.
I have been on holiday, camping in the woods.

As to the methods employed in analysis of tea, a chemist
would use chromatography as the primary method.  
One would use High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
coupled with UltraViolet - Visible (UV-Vis) spectrometry as the detection
means for non-volatile components.  Another form of chromatography 
would be Gas Chromatography (GC) with Flame Ionization Detection (FID)
or, better yet, Mass Spectrometry (MS) for the more volatile compounds.

Chromatography is a separation method, where the individual components 
are spread out in time by using a column which is coated with a material 
that has a preference for some of the compounds (the "Stationary Phase").  
Depending on how well they “stick”, the components will move through the 
column at different speeds, forming bands of like materials as they are 
pushed along by the liquid or gas (called the "mobile phase").  
Unfortunately, there is no single method which will separate all the 
compounds in a single analysis.  

To learn further about these methods, you can search using any of the above
acronyms as keywords, but since these methods are so widespread, you will
get zillions of hits.  You may want to go to a college library and look at 
some of the chemistry texts that they would have.  Look for “Quantitative 
Analysis”, “Instrumental Analysis” and “Separations” as the best title 
keywords.

Hope this helps,

Dr. Mike Gallagher
Senior Research Chemist
J.R. Simplot Co.