Abstract:In this study, nine kinds of tea leaves from three selenium-rich producing areas, Wanyuan, Enshi and Ankang were used as raw materials, and the contents of crude polysaccharide, total phenol, total flavone and selenium in their water extracts were examined. Ascorbic acid (Vc) was used as the positive control to measure the DPPH free radical scavenging rate, total reducing power, hydroxyl free radical scavenging rate and ABTS+ free radical scavenging rate. Correlation analysis and cluster analysis were used to reveal the relationship between functional components and antioxidant activities of tea water extracts. The analysis results of functional components in the 9 tea water extracts showed that the highest concentration of crude polysaccharides in the water extract of Sichuan Wanyuan Queshe (WY-1) was 260.81 mg/g. The water extract of Sichuan Wanyuan Mingqian Maofeng (WY-2) had the highest total phenol mass concentration (138.85 mg/g). The water extract of Hubei Lichuan black tea (LC-1) had the highest concentration of total flavonoids (109.42 mg/g). The mass concentration of selenium in the water extract of Ankang Maojian (AK-2) was the highest (0.247 2 mg/kg). The WY-1 water extract had the strongest scavenging ability against DPPH free radicals, total reducing power, and abilities against hydroxyl free radical and ABTS+ free radical (P<0.05), whereas, the WY-2 water extract also had significantly stronger total reducing power and ABTS+ scavenging ability than those in other regions (P<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the contents of crude polysaccharide and total phenol in the tea water extracts were significantly positively correlated with their antioxidant activities (P<0.05), whilst the contents of total flavonoids the tea water extracts were significantly negatively correlated with their antioxidant activities (P<0.05). Clustering analysis revealed the significant differences in the biological activities of the water extracts of the nine teas from the three selenium-rich regions. The comprehensive comparison showed that WY-1 and WY-2 have strong antioxidant abilities and have certain research value.