Study on the Retention Rate of Green Tea Catechins Components and Tea Polyphenol by Different Processing Technology

The aim of this research was to explore the effect of fixation,rolling,and drying processing technology on the retention rate of green tea catechins components and tea polyphenol.Different fixation processes （rotary drum-firing,microwave,steam-blasting）,rolling process （weight of rolling,gently press rolling and traditional rolling）,drying process （stove drying,roasting dehydration,baked fried drying） were adopted.The effect of different tea processing technology on the retention rate of catechins component and tea polyphenol was analyzed.It showed that the microwave fixation process,gently press rolling process,baked fried dry process were beneficial to keep high levels of EGCG,C,EGC,EC,ECG.     

Effect of Chelated Vanadium Spray on Concentration of Vanadium and Organic Compounds in Tea Shoots

The study aimed to develop vanadium tea products and evaluated the potential of chelated vanadium （V） absorption by tea shoots and effect of vanadium accumulation on tea quality during the first crop season.Chelated V application with three times foliar sprays at 5 days intervals starting from 15 days before plucking showed a significant increase in V content of new young shoots,which was much effective at higher concentration.However,one or two times sprays had no increase in V content regardless of spray concentration compared to non-treated.Despite V accumulation in the treated at 3 to 9 times higher that of than the non-treated plants,there were no significant changes in contents of total amino acids,theanine,caffeine,total polyphenols,crude fiber,and cathechins between the treated and the non-treated.     

Studies on Umami Taste of Tea

Umami is one of the five basic tastes and an important taste attribute of green tea.Amino acids are major components contributing to umami taste and the top three amino acids in tea are theanine,glutarnic acid and aspartic acid.Trace of umami taste components adenosine monophosphate （AMP） and guanosine monophosphate （GMP） were detected in tea.Levels of umami taste components varied with tea cultivar,environmental conditions,fertilizer and processing method.The taste threshold of amino acids differentiated greatly and its DOT （dose over threshold） is an important indicator evaluating its contribution to umami taste.     

Fluoride in Tea and Its Risk Assessment

Tea plant absorbs from soil a large amount of fluorine （F） which is accumulated in leaf,resulting in elevated F concentration in tea.It is a controversial topic whether the fluoride in tea is associated with fluorosis.The research advances in F variation of various kinds of tea,factors influencing F level in tea and the associated health risk assessment were reviewed in the present paper.The F level in tea increases with the maturity of the tea leaf.Brick tea had a high F content because it was prepared using mature shoots and old tea leaves as raw material.Some low grade UK supermarket economy teas contained elevated F comparable to the Chinese brick tea.Tea F level is also affected by tea cultivar,soil condition,tea processing method and tea infusion preparation method.     

Tea Seed and Its Bioactive Functions

Tea seed is a byproduct in tea production and also a source of nutritional and bioactive compounds.There have been studies showing that extracts of tea seeds offered many physiological functions including anti-inflammatory,anti-oxidant,anti-tumor,anti-obesity,hepatoprotective and gastroprotective effects.The tea seed oil is also an acceptable biodiesel and the saponin-rich tea seed meal can be used as vermicide to expel earthworms from the soil of golf courses and sports fields.The bioactive functions of tea seed extracts and their potential uses in agricultural and industrial sectors were reviewed in the present paper.     

Multiple Seasonal Modifications in Enzymatic Flavour Formation in Tea

Carotenoid cleavage enzymes isolated from Japanese Camellia sinensis leaves （cultivar Yabukita） were used for investigating the structural patterns of carotenoid cleavage enzymes.Fresh tea leaves were used for the isolation of active enzymes and purified to single band stage in SDS PAGE gels after isoelectric focusing.The specific activity of the carotenoid cleavage enzymes was tested and the active fractions selected for further analysis.The sugar content and the amount of phosphate present in the purified enzymes were elucidated by the following methods：Phosphates were detected by phosphatase assays,fluorescence marker kits and ammoniumheptamolybdate complex measurements after incineration of the samples.Sugars were detected in gels using PAS reagent （periodide acid/ Schiff reagent） staining and by GC-MS after hydrolysation of the proteins with trifluoric acid.Phosphorylations as well as glycosylations of the samples could be detected in all cases,thus giving evidence for an increasing phosphorylation level of proteins in Camellia sinensis from spring （1.84 g/mg） to autumn （2.39 g/rg） as well as the presence of at least four different sugars （arabinose,xylose,galactose and ribose）.These secondary modifications of the carotenoid cleavage enzymes and their dependency on the harvesting season may well correspond to the changes on the functional level which were detected between spring （Michaelis Constant （Km） =9.45 mol/1） and autumn （K =17.16 mol/l） harvests.     

Studies on Bitter and Astringent Taste of Tea

Bitterness and astringency are important sensory properties for evaluating quality of tea.The research advances in the mechanism of tea astringency and bitterness,astringent and bitter tasting components and their evaluations were reviewed in the present paper.The astringency arises from the interaction of salivary proteins with polyphenols which depends on the structure of both the polyphenols and the proteins.Bitter and astringent compounds in tea include phenolic acids,catechins and their oxidized products,flavonol glycosides and proanthocyanidins.There are many factors influencing on astringency and bitterness including the interaction between taste substances,repeated ingestion,saliva flow and its composition and acidity.Sensory assessment and instrumental evaluation were used in the evaluation of astringency.     

Tea Breeding in Japan

Tea breeding in Japan started around 116 years ago,and to date,more than 110 cultivars have been developed and released.Seedling plants were uprooted and rapidly replaced with new clonal cultivars after 1970.At present,more than 95％ of the tea gardens in Japan grow improved clonal cultivars.Although the cultivation of the ＂Yabukita＂ variety had expanded and contributed to approximately 76％ of the tea grown,this excessive plantation resulted in some serious problems in the cultivation and management of the tea industry after 1990.Therefore,after 2000,new programs have been initiated to breed superior varieties through the use of various genetic resources and DNA markers.     

Effect of Different Drying Methods on the Volatile Compounds Jinmudan Oolong Tea

Jinmudan,a new tea variety from Fujian Province has an excellent quality with a unique aroma like magnolia frogrance.To monitor the changes in the tea volatile compounds during the Jinmudan Oolong tea manufacturing （drying） process,the volatiles of tea samples were extracted and analyzed.Characteristic volatile compounds in Jinmudan Oolong tea were nerolidol,α-famesene,linolenic acid,palmitic acid,indole,phenylacetaldehyde,cisjasmone,β-phenylethanol,etc.The content of nerolidol was the highest in four tested samples.The composition of the volatile compounds in microwave drying sample was simple,but its concentration was high,in which the main volatile compounds were alcohols and esters.The processing with combination of traditional drying craft and modem aroma-improvement technique could obviously improve the tea aroma,especially in level of epoxy linalool and jasmine lactone.     

Volatile Flavor Components and the Body Weights of Rats in the Green Tea Added Miner Ingredients

In order to change for the good flavor in green tea of middle or low grade,roast naked barley （miner ingredient） was added to it.To make tea having functional property,mixed roast naked barley-green tea with one medicinal herb （MH,miner ingredient）.This study was performed to investigate the effect of drinking extracts of naked barley-MH-green tea （A group） and adlay-Angelica gigas Nakai-green tea （B group） on the body weights of rats,and volatile flavor components of best effective extract on weight reduction.Forty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats divided into six groups were fed five different green tea extracts for 8 weeks.The result obtained in the experiment indicated that the change of body weights of rats was affected by A group,B group and others.A group showed highest reduction rate of body weights （36.40％）.Reduction rate of body weights on the B group （10.10％） was much lower than A group （36.40％）.Aroma compounds were extracted by the SDE method.The concentrated aroma extracts were analyzed and identified by GC and GC-MS.The main aroma components of the green tea blended with naked barley and MH were 12 pyrazines having roasty note,methyl butanals having sweet note,hexanal having briskness greenish note,and nerolidol and3-ionone having floral note.     

Analysis of Volatile Compounds of Jinmudan Oolong Tea by Different Wrapping-Twisting

In this study,the volatile compounds in four kinds of Jinmudan Oolong tea were extracted and analyzed by simultaneous steam distillation and extraction （SDE） and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry （GC-MS）,respectively.The relative contents of the chemical constituents in the volatile components were quantified by peak area normalization and NIST database.A total of 93 volatile components were identified,46 for sample 1,56 for sample 2,45 for sample 3 and 30 for sample 4.Alcohols and esters were the most abundant volatiles in Jinmudan Oolong tea.Palmitic acid,nerolidol,2-phenylethanol,phytol,cis-5-ethenyltetrahydro-,α,α-5-trimethyl-2-furanmethanol,2,2,6-trimethyl-6-ethenyltetrahydro-2h-pyran-3-ol,a-farnesene,eicosane,hexadecane,indole,β-phenethyl hexanoate,β-phenethyl hexanoate,methyl palmitate,benzoic acid,2-phenylethyl ester,tetrahydro-6-（cis-2-pentenyl）-2h-pyran-2-one and cis-jasmone were in all of the samples.Nerolidol was shown to be the aroma components with the highest content in Jinmudan Oolong tea,which accounted for 26.61％,36.89％,36.89％ and 36.89％.     

Extraction of Tea Polysaccharides and Their Effect on Wheat Starch Retrogradation

Tea Polysaccharides （TPS） has been acknowledged of one of the most important components with various bioactivities in tea.The extraction of TPS from wide tea sources was the previous and determinant work before further studies done.While the extraction procedures of TPS would be different due to the later utilization.In this work,the extraction conditions of TPS were previously optimized by respond surface methodology.A quadric model was obtained as Y =3.16 ＋0.31X1-0.55X2-0.47X3-0.034X1X2 ＋0.022X1X3-0.041X2X3-0.90X12-0.40X22-0.73X32.The model was tested and proved through the ANOVA with F-value and p-value.Furthermore,the optimal condition was achieved as extraction temperature of 82℃,extraction time of 106 min and ratio of water to material of33∶1 （mL/g）,meanwhile the highest yield of TPS showed 3.39％ ±0.08％.The crude TPS was later refined to be of purity of 81.3％.The refined TPS was incorporated with starch as to state the role of TPS in the starch retrogradation of starch-based food.The results showed that TPS-wheat starch mixture has a relatively low degree of retrogradation,which indicated that TPS has a delayed or resistant effect on wheat starch retrogradation.This work may provide a practical evidence for the promising starch-based food incorporated tea.     

Yuexiang Longjing Tea and Its Quality Characteristics

Shengzhou is a major tea producing county in China and the major tea produced in Shengzhou is Yuexiang Longjing tea.Environment and tea cultivar are two important factors influencing tea quality.Chemical composition of tea samples prepared using materials from cultivars ‘Zhenong-117＇ and ‘ Baiye-1＇ were investigated.It showed that concentrations of total amino acids and catechins were more than 4.4％ and 129 mg/g respectively,suggesting that Yuexiang Longjing had a good quality potential.     

Effect of Drinking Green Tea on Mental State of Humans

Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world,among which green tea is most common in China and Korea.Green tea constituents possess a great value to human health wherein lots of clinical studies and investigations were conducted by researchers and experts.However,there are still increasing demands and interest on the health properties of green tea,especially its effects on mental state of human brains.Based on the collated clinical studies,green tea was used to improve mental alertness and thinking.Thus,higher consumption of green tea was associated with a lower prevalence of cognitive impairment.This review summarizes the effects of drinking green tea on the mental state of human brains.Green tea contains a unique set of L-theanine and epigallocatechin gallate （EGCG） that possess biological activities in antioxidant,anti-memory loss,and antiproliferative assays potentially relevant to the prevention and treatment of various forms of brain damage.Theanine in green tea may play a role in reducing stress.The use of highly innovative method of reading and mental behavior of the human brain＇s response with the intake of green tea thru neuroimaging was also covered in this review.     

A Review on Decaffeination of Tea Products

Since caffeine possesses some well-unknown adverse effects,many attempts have been conducted to remove it from tea products,including selective extraction with different solvents,enzymatic degradation and inhibition the caffeine synthesis pathway.Reports showed that caffeine can be safely and efficiently removed from fresh tea leaves by hot water blanching,however this approach is not suitable for treating the rolled or dried leaves because of the unavoidable loss of catechins.Although microwave-enhanced vacuum ice water extraction can be used for decaffeination of dried tea,time consumption seems to be the main shortage of this method.Liquefied dimethyl ether might be used as another alternative solvent for selective extraction of caffeine from tea products because of its low toxicity and residum,but its decaffeination efficiency needs to be verified furthermore.It has been proved that supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is an effective approach for removing caffeine from different types of tea products,while the application of the technique is always limited as its expensive equipments and high running costs.Decaffeination with microbe incubation or enzymatic digestion is highly hopeful since many studies showed that some microorganisms can degrade the caffeine through induced demethylase and oxidase under gentle condition in some model systems,unfortunately,this approach is far away from application since security and quality of the decaffeinated products are rarely concerned.Low-caffeine tea products can be easily produced through normal manufacture by using the leaves harvested from some low-caffeine cultivars which are derived through genetic modification or conventional breeding,but these germplasms are very limited.     

Benefits of Daily Intake Tea on Human Health

The recent research achievements about the mechanisms of beneficial health effects of tea polyphenols and the epidemiological investigation on anti-cancer,anti-cardiovascular diseases,and anti-obesity through tea consumption were reviewed.It is proved that reactive oxygen species is the main reason to induce cell mutation,DNA damage,obesity,high blood pressure and many kinds of cancers.Tea catechins and theaflavins have excellent bioactivity on scavenging ROS due to their characteristic structure feature of phenolic hydroxyl group,which means drinking tea could prevent diseases.Epidemidogical investigations also showed that tea consumption could reduce the risk of lung cancer,gastric cancer,bladder cancer,and so on.However,the frequency of tea drinking or tea consumption amounts significantly affected the prevention efficiency.The epidemiologic investigations also find that drink green tea,especial black tea is useful to modify the cardiovascular diseases.In vivo and vitro tests showed that tea supplement could moderate the metabolism of blood lipid and prevent obesity.These indicated that tea and tea extracts might reduce the risk of many diseases.     

Advances in Preparation of Theanine

Theanine is an important component affecting tea quality and it has many health benefits for human being.Chemical synthesis of theanine had high productivity,but its application needed efficient raceme resolution technique.Although only L-theanine will be synthesized through exogenous/endogenous enzymes or microbe fermentation,low yield is the main shortage of this technique.Extraction of theanine from tea leaves is a conventional and efficient preparation technique,and highly purified theanine can be achieved when extraction and separation procedures are suitable.     

A Study on Thought of Tea of Hanjae Yi-mok＇s Da-bu

The Da-bu of Hanjae Lee mok （1471-1498） is known as an original masterpiece,which is predominantly documented in Korean tea books.He had always spared no effort to put Confucianists＇ theories and thoughts into practice during his 28-year career.Da-bu tea magnificently reflected his concepts of Confucianism in conjunction with tea-drinking activities.The main contents of Da-bu have included written authors,tea species and production,landscape of tea cultivation,tea plants and leaves,ways of tea-drinking and three-grade tea,tea song of seven cups,5 merits and 6 moralities of tea,benefits of tea-drinking,tea comprehension,etc.According to the views of contents,tea of Hanjae Leemok is the only partner with which we can share life and it can also be beneficial to healthy diets.Not only does it have become part of our daily life,but also be a medicine for our physical and mental disease.He composed the tea song of seven cups,which sufficiently expressed a real practice of the pursued ideal state of Confucianism and Taoism.He also promoted a drinking tea for health enrichment of Confucianists.According to the analytical results of Da-bu,Hanjae＇s tea has recognizably become the personally real practice of Confucianism and state.He had reached the enlightenment for the state of birth and death.After consuming tea,his body and mind immediately changed to the state of joys and wonderland,and also he illustrated that this feeling is not a one-off state,it always comes out whenever drinking.Therefore,based on Hanjae Lee mok,tea drinking is not only the regiment for healthy benefits,but also it is a training method,＂ Dado in My Heart＂,for individuals to train their mind,body,and morality.     

Tea Consumption and Antihypertensive Effects

Tea consumption is a major source of flavanoids for a wide large population.Any physiological effects of tea,like antihypertension,could have a significant impact on population health.The effects of tea on blood pressure are less consistent.Results of population studies and long term controlled studies are consistent with a blood pressure-lowering effect of tea.However,some of the short-term intervention trials,mainly in normotensive individuals,have not demonstrated significant blood pressure reduction with tea.The focus of this review is on the mounting evidence from human studies that tea can lower blood pressure.