Differential behaviors of tea catechins under thermal processing: Formation of non-enzymatic oligomers.Tea catechins as a member of flavan-3-ols subclass with the same skeleton may behave differentially.  Epicatechin and epigallocatechin had the lowest thermostabilities due to epimerization and oxidation/condensation reactions respectively.  The evidence of generation of catechin oligomers provides a novel way to explain sensory change of tea and relevant products during thermal processing.
THERM