{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T09:07:17Z","timestamp":1789636037079,"version":"4.0.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"2025 Zhejiang Provincial College Student Science and Technology Innovation Activity Plan and Xinmiao Talents Program"},{"name":"2024 General Project of Xingzhi College, Zhejiang Normal University"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Foods"],"abstract":"<jats:p>White tea is rich in polyphenols with antioxidant potential, but information on Zheng\u2019an white tea remains limited. This study optimized water-based ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) using single-factor experiments and a Box\u2013Behnken design and evaluated the antioxidant activity of the resulting extract. Tea-leaf microstructure, polyphenolic composition, and antioxidant capacity were assessed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), liquid chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry (LC\u2013MS), in vitro radical-scavenging assays, and a Caenorhabditis elegans model, respectively. The optimized conditions within the investigated experimental domain were a solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:50 (g\/mL), an ultrasonic time of 50 min, and an ultrasonic power of 118 W, yielding a total polyphenol content of 37.93 \u00b1 0.17 mg GAE\/g DW. SEM revealed marked disruption of tea-leaf cellular structures after UAE. LC\u2013MS enabled the putative annotation of 25 representative polyphenols spanning phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols, procyanidins, flavonols and their glycosides, and related derivatives. At 1.5 mg\/mL, the extract exhibited ABTS and DPPH radical-scavenging rates of 81.68 \u00b1 3.23% and 85.43 \u00b1 2.31%, respectively. In C. elegans, 100 \u03bcg\/mL extract increased catalase activity by 86.03% and decreased malondialdehyde content by 46.40% (p &lt; 0.01). These findings show that the optimized aqueous UAE procedure recovered a polyphenol-rich extract with antioxidant activity in the tested chemical assays and C. elegans model.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/foods15183281","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T08:03:17Z","timestamp":1789632197000},"page":"3281","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Antioxidant Polyphenols from Zheng\u2019an White Tea: Process Optimization and Bioactivity"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0274-134X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yucheng","family":"He","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Xingzhi College, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Jun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Ran","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Zheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yuchun","family":"Rao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Fang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xingzhi College, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22994","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.jafc.5c04943","article-title":"Advances and Outlook of Tea Polyphenol Chemistry: A Review","volume":"73","author":"Wang","year":"2025","journal-title":"J. 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