Discrimination of vicinal-diol-containing flavonoids and black teas by arrays of host–indicator ensembles

Tea has attracted attention the world over because of its purported beneficial protective effects against many kinds of diseases. Based on the ‘indicator displacement assay’ mechanism, we report a series of dynamic three-component sensing ensembles for the discrimination of vicinal-diol-containing flavonoids and black tea extracts. The sensing arrays constructed in this paper are capable of quick analyses of vicinal-diol-containing flavonoids and the differentiation of black teas.