Abstract:This study was aimed to investigate the effects of different drying methods，included hot-air drying，microwave drying，and vacuum-freeze drying，on the content of total phenols，flavonoids and antioxidant activities of waterlily tea，which would provided reference basis for the processing and application of waterlily tea.The content of total phenols，flavonoids were determined by Folin-Ciocalteus，NaNO2-Al（NO3）3-NaOH methods respectively.The antioxidant activities were evaluated by DPPH free radical scavenging activity，ABTS+free radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power（FRAP）.The relationship between the content of total phenols，flavonoids and antioxidant activity were analyzed by correlation analysis.The results showed that drying rate was influenced by drying methods which followed the order：microwave drying＞hot-air drying＞vacuum-freeze drying.Compared to the other drying，microwave （400W）dried waterlily tea had the highest total phenol content（187.72 mg GAE/g DW），DPPH·antioxidant capacity（386.92 mg BE/g DW）and ABTS+·antioxidant capacity （162.37 mg BE/g DW）.Meanwhile，hot-air（70℃）dried waterlily had the highest flavonoids content（65.58 mg RE/g DW）.The antioxidant activity of samples with different drying treatments was significantly correlated with the total phenol content（P＜0.05），but not with the flavonoids content（P＞0.05）.Compared with hot-air drying or vacuum-freeze drying，microwave（400 W）drying had higher efficiency，and could better retain phenolic substances in samples，so that it had stronger antioxidant activity.