Table 2.

Metals quantification in leaves and infusion of three tea differently fermented (black tea = BT; blue tea = BL; green tea = GT). The average values were calculated for each tea type.

	Average Black Tea		Average Oolong Tea		Average Green Tea
	BT Leaves	BT Infusion	BL Leaves	BL Tea	GT Leaves	GT Infusion
Metals	Conc. (µg/g)	Conc. (µg/g)	Conc. (µg/g)	Conc. (µg/g)	Conc. (µg/g)	Conc. (µg/g)
K	8996.102	11535.429	2655.626	3946.741	7264.210	11260.935
P	1644.388	1944.327	304.034	220.817	2165.274	1533.009
Mg	1216.800	515.621	544.392	170.475	1275.141	598.120
Ca	670.392	55.530	542.526	77.562	983.943	26.662
Mn	357.941	124.278	140.959	46.335	244.590	141.309
Al	287.661	49.306	483.618	182.910	115.614	34.697
Na	159.809	105.778	139.745	72.741	252.535	136.846
Fe	72.556	7.749	18.575	<0.001	33.254	<0.001
Rb	33.233	37.755	11.932	21.611	15.155	24.513
Zn	24.552	3.489	17.818	1.856	29.256	9.958
Ba	12.433	2.027	6.912	0.743	16.633	0.729
Sr	10.471	2.176	7.181	1.002	14.670	0.788
Cu	7.859	1.349	1.500	0.307	7.153	1.673
Ni	4.381	1.577	0.881	0.467	8.894	11.800
Cr	3.978	<0.001	0.487	<0.001	0.833	<0.001
Ti	2.125	0.201	0.503	0.033	1.518	0.097
Pb	0.281	0.069	0.138	0.009	0.679	0.027
Cs	0.219	0.203	0.035	0.112	0.071	0.088
Mo	0.165	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001
V	0.130	0.008	0.029	0.001	0.071	0.002
Co	0.121	0.041	0.017	0.026	0.213	0.373
LI	0.116	0.051	0.070	0.071	0.139	0.034
As	0.096	0.035	0.015	0.005	0.046	0.025
Sn	0.053	0.005	0.053	0.004	0.091	0.006
Sb	0.045	0.002	0.012	<0.001	0.035	0.008
Se	0.031	0.007	0.025	0.010	0.025	0.008
Cd	0.023	0.003	0.015	0.001	0.035	0.002
Be	0.004	0.002	<0.001	0.009	0.003	0.001
Te	0.001	0.000	0.003	0.001	0.001	<0.001

Our results clearly indicate that potassium is the most representative element in both tea leaves and infusions and its concentration increased probably due to infusion process occurring at the time-temperature couples reported in the Material and Method section (Table 2, Figure 4). Other ions e.g., phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, and manganese were similarly abundant with decreasing concentration along the infusion process excluded for phosphorus in black tea (Figure 4). Actually, the chemical elements, namely potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus, were the most abundant ones and their presence in food is considered as healthy and safe for the organism due to their involvement in the main cellular processes.