Herbal tea is widely consumed around the world because people believed that it contained
high amount of antioxidant. However, usage of different maturity of the plants as raw materials
could affect the antioxidant capacities in herbal tea. Hence, this paper reports the antioxidant
activity of herbal tea prepared from
Cosmos caudatus
at different maturity namely young,
mature and old leaves. The analyses carried out were total phenolic content (TPC), total
flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and DPPH (2-2-diphenyl-
1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assays. Based on the results obtained, herbal tea prepared
from young leaves had significantly strong (p