Synergetic deodorant effect and antibacterial activity of composite paper containing waste tea leaves

Composite paper containing waste tea leaves was prepared to investigate the effective utilization of waste tea leaves as deodorant material. Paper containing waste green tea leaves did not have increased deodorizing ability compared with controls either against acidic odors such as hydrogen sulfide and acetic acid gases or against neutral odors such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde gases. In contrast, the paper had excellent deodorizing ability against basic odors such as ammonia and trimethylamine gases. It was observed during additional tests conducted on paper samples containing 60 wt% waste leaves of oolong tea, black tea, pu-erh tea, or hojicha, that all the samples reduced the ammonia concentration to below 1 ppm, which is the threshold concentration for olfactory recognition, within 30 min. Further, paper containing waste green tea leaves was found to decrease the odor residual rate to 5.1% in 30 min even for a waste tea leaf content of 10 wt%. The excellent deodorizing ability of the paper could be attributed to the chemical reactions between odorous substances and the catechins found in tea leaves. After the deodorization of ammonia, paper containing waste green tea leaves was found to have increased antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus.