Mate – a “new” caffeine-containing
ingredient for the food and beverage industry
Gertrud Winkler, Miriam El Damaty, Christa Schröder, Sigmaringen; Dirk W. Lachenmeier, Karlsruhe
Summary
Mate has gained increasing popularity. The concentrates and extracts are claimed to be innovative substances with various, mostly unsubstantiated health claims. Mate tea contains approximately 0.5 g/L caffeine, which is more than the amount in other caffeinated beverages (cola 0.1 g/L, tea 0.2 g/L, coffee 0.3 g/L). Mate may be added to tea mixtures and soft drinks, including energy drinks.
Keywords: mate, caffeine content, health effects, health claims, energy drinks
were used [1, 9, 10]. Two additional articles [2, 3] were identified through Google Scholar or elsewhere.
A market control was performed from
30 December 2013 to 4 January 2014 within the metropolitan area of Stutt- gart, Germany. This covered different types of food retailers: 4 consumer or wholesale supermarkets, 3 discount stores, 4 organic grocery stores and 3 health food shops. This was comple- mented by parallel internet searches.
Introduction
The leaves of the mate tree (Ilex pa- raguariensis) were already used as a recreational drug and medicine by the original inhabitants of South America. In the 17th century, Je- suit missionaries started to culti- vate mate plants in plantations and spread the mate tree throughout South America. At the end of the
18th century, mate was introduced to Europe as a medicinal plant. Mate tea is now a widely used and popu- lar caffeinated beverage in South America and the Middle East. It is drunk for its taste and stimulant ef-
Citation:
Winkler G, El Damaty M, Schröder C, Lachenmeier DW (2014) Mate – a “new” caffeine-con- taining ingredient for the food and beverage industry. Ernah- rungs Umschau 61(10): 160–163
This article is available online: DOI: 10.4455/eu.2014.027
fects and is now also added to beers, soft drinks, juices, sweets and ice [1–3]. Mate tea has recently become more popular in the USA and in Eu- rope and is sold and advertised as an innovative ingredient for beverages and food supplements [1].
Product research studies were per- formed during previous work on the caffeine intake of children and ado- lescents and these have shown that mate is present in many different beverages [4–8].
The present article describes the cur- rent knowledge of mate products and lists the foods and beverages that contain mate.
Methods
A literature search from 2000 for English language review articles was performed in the scientific databases PubMed and Food Science and Tech- nology Abstracts (FSTA), using the keyword Ilex paraguariensis. Eleven articles were identified in PubMed and nine in FSTA and three of these
The search was continued until no additional products were found after reasonable effort.
Current knowledge about mate
Botany and production
The mate tree or bush (Ilex paragua- riensis) is a member of the holly (or ilex) family (Aquifoliaceae). In the wild, it grows up to 15 m in height. It requires a humid, subtropical cli- mate (20–23 °C and intermediate to high air humidity) and grows at a mean elevation of 400–800 m.
The tea is produced from the leaves, which are light green, ovate, slightly dentate and leathery. They are up to 20 cm long and 8 cm broad (• Figure 1). The harvest takes place during the South American winter – both manually from wild growing trees and mechanically from planta- tion bushes. Both leaves and whole branches are harvested. These are then processed [9].
Fig. 1: Drawing of Ilex paraguariensis [taken from Köhler‘s Medizinal Pflanzen [Medicinal Plants],
Vol. 3 (1898). Verlag F.E. Köhler, Gera. Copyright expired, Scan used with permission from
Missouri Botanical Garden
(www.illustratedgarden.org)]
The total mate harvest in 2012 was
888,746 t in a cultivated area of
275,646 ha, of which more than 50 % was in Brazil, more than 30 % in Argentina and the remaining 20 % in Paraguay and Uruguay [11]. Most of the exported products are currently transported to the eastern Mediterranean, where hot caffeinat- ed tea beverages are particularly po- pular [2].
Processing
After the harvest, the leaves must be treated. The commercial forms are green mate (mate taragin) and roasted mate (mate real). For both variants, crude mate is first pro- duced. This is achieved by heating the leafy branch material in wire drums over fire for approximately
1 min at 400 °C. The water con-
tent is then reduced from 60 to 25 %.
After cooling, the material is dried for a further 4 h at 80 °C under hot air, giving 8–9 % residual moisture. The leaves and stems are then crushed and pulverised and undesired por- tions of the stems are removed by sieving. The crude mate is then fer- mented. This may be conducted for several months at room tempera- ture or for 30-45 days under warm air (50–60 °C).
After the fermentation, there is a final drying step to 2–3 % residual moisture. Green mate is then isola- ted by further pulverisation, siev- ing and mixing. For roasted mate, the raw mate is vigorously roasted at a higher temperature in the final drying process. This gives it a strong smoky taste. The mate can then be ground, mixed, roasted, packed or otherwise processed. Instant mate is prepared from raw mate by steam distillation.
The process steps and thus the final product vary greatly between diffe- rent regions, producers and the desi- red final product [9, 12]. Mate gene- rally has a comparatively high pro- portion of stem fragments. It may also contain fragments from other varieties of ilex – either accidentally or to improve the taste. The heating process over fire appears to have a major effect on the smell and taste of the product [9]. As a result of the production process, mate may con-
Soft drink with added mate, origin not given
Soft drink with added mate, origin not given
tain a very high proportion of poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. How- ever, only very small proportions of these contaminants are transferred to mate tea during the brewing pro- cess [13].
Mate and mate tea
as an additive for food and beverages
To prepare mate tea, hot (but not boiling) water is added to about 1 teaspoonful of mate per cup. After
5–10 min, the mate is removed by sieving. The infusion can be re- peated several times. As the caffeine is more rapidly dissolved than the tannins, the tea is more stimulating and the taste less strong after short infusion times. However, the taste is always bitter, tart and smoky. Mate tea contains approximately 78 mg caffeine per 150 mL cup [9], corre- sponding to approximately 0.5 g/L. This is clearly higher than the aver- age content of other caffeinated be- verages (cola 0.1 g/L, tea 0.2 g/L, coffee 0.3 g/L) [6].
• Table 1 lists our own current re- sults on the caffeine content of mate tea and soft drinks containing mate.
Around the traditional cultivation areas, mate possesses cult character. It is still sometimes prepared and drunk in the traditional manner in
190 mg/L beverage
228 mg/L beverage
The material is next partially dried for 1–2 min at 80 °C in warm air, giving 15 % residual water content.
Tab. 1: Caffeine content in 6 randomly selected mate products
(determined by HPLC in accordance with DIN ISO 10727)
* Theobromine: 51 mg/100 g (theobromine was not determined in the other samples)
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Science & Research | Original Contribution
Product group
Number
of products
Data or claim for caffeine content
Comments
Anmerkungen
mate tea, pure
(loose or in tea bag) 6 no information: 6 supermarket health food shop internet green or roasted
mixture of herbal or fruit teas with mate (loose or in tea bag) 14 no information: 13
Imprecise information:
1* supermarket health food shop internet some product names refer to (putative) effect
alcohol-free soft drinks and energy drinks 23 no information: 4
0–19 mg/100 mL: 1
20–31 mg/100 mL: 13
32 mg/100 mL: 5 internet supermarket organic grocery store including one drinking powder
alcoholic beverages 2 no information: 2 internet
sports food 1 no information: 1 internet carbohydrate gel
Tab. 2: Foods and beverages with mate which are available in food retail sale and through the internet (market check in the Stuttgart metropolitan area in January 2014)
* “2 cups of tea contain as much coffee as one cup of coffee”
the community, from special drink- ing vessels with a metal straw. For details, see e.g. [3].
For the preparation of foods and (particularly) beverages, not only green or roasted tea leaves and powders are used, but also liquids or concentrates or extracts dried to powders. These are used for teas, soft drinks, juices and sweets.
Bioactive ingredients and health effects
Mate leaves contain a number of se- condary plant metabolites, includ- ing xanthines (1–2 % caffeine in dried leaves), theobromine, theo- phylline, saponins, minerals and vi- tamins [1, 9].
The content and transfer to the infu- sion depends on the type, processing after harvest, degree of grinding, mixing and type of preparation. The caffeine in mate is in the bound form, so that it is more slowly me- tabolised than the caffeine in coffee and its stimulating effect therefore lasts longer [9].
Mate is claimed to have several fa-
vourable effects on health. These have been subject to intensive re- search [1, 9] and are already used in the marketing for fitness and health purposes. This includes effects on fat metabolism and weight regulation, as well as anti-oxidative, anti-in- flammatory, immune regulatory, anti-mutagenic and an