I need some important guidelines in brewing the leaves of a plant.?

Question

This is for a investigative project and i want to use tea as a topic.

Answer 1

Tea? As in Camellia sinensis?

Much of the method will depend upon what you are investigating. Attempting to measure caffeine or flavinoids for beverage comparison is different that attempting to measure total substances.

If you are wanting to compare caffeine, as in beverage, then you need to prepare the brew much like drinking tea. An infusion of the leaves in almost boiling water, steeped for a minimum of 5 minutes (with slight stirring) and then filtered (a coffee filter is fine). Consistent timing is necessary for good results.

For total possible caffeine (such as for percent caffeine per dried leaf mass) then more robust methods must be used. A chemist would use a Soxlet extractor, but an ordinary coffee percolator can give fairly good results. Brewing times, again are very important. I would recommend a glass pot and removal of the extract to be used as soon as possible. You might start with 20 minutes.