Abstract:Tea polyphenols, the phenolic compounds and their derivatives in tea, are a kinds of natural antioxidants used as food additivesplays, which have a strong role in metabolic regulation of microorganisms. This paper systematically introduced the active components of tea polyphenols, the mechanism of their inhibitory effects on harmful bacteria and promotion effects on beneficial bacterium and their application. Research showed that the main component of tea polyphenols was yellow paraffin and catechins which exerted an enormous function on prevention of bacteria growth and have a broad spectrum of inhibition of pathogenic bacteria while it had good proliferation effect on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus bacteria. The special bioactive function and bidirectional regulation of tea polyphenols will have increasingly important effects on the field of food processing, preservation, medicine, aquaculture industry and other fields.
