invention contains the so called tea tannin the tannin content is usually at least about 30 as determined by the standard tea component analyzing process although it varies with for example the extraction conditions typically the tannin content is about 70 in example 1 as described hereinafter the tannin content of the natural antioxidant is 72 if has further been found that the tannin component of the extract is composed primarily of epigallocatechin gallate and additionally contains small amounts of epigallocatechin epicatechin gallate epicatechin etc the natural antioxidant produced by the present invention is readily soluble in water and can also be dissolved easily in oils and fats by previously dissolving the antioxidant in a small amount of ethanol thus the natural antioxidant of the present invention can be used in both water soluble and oil soluble foodstuffs in addition to such foodstuffs the natural antioxidant of the present invention can be used in cosmetics petroleum products and so forth furthermore the natural antioxidant of the present invention exhibits excellent antioxidant properties the same antioxidant effect as obtained with dl u03b1 tocopherol which is a common antioxidant can be obtained by using the natural antioxidant of the present invention in an amount of only about 1 10 to 1 20 as determined by aom method of the amount of dl u03b1 tocopherol the present invention is described in greater detail with reference to the following examples one hundred grams of instant green tea were added to and completely dissolved in 1 000 milliliters of hot water then equal volumes of the tea solution and chloroform were mixed and the tea solution was washed with the chloroform to remove caffeine pigments and so forth to thereby obtain 1 100 milliliters of.