Abstract
The chemical or metabolic compositions of tea (Camellia sinensis) varies according to numerous factors, such as geographical origin, cultivar, climate, plucking position, and horticultural practices. However, how the age of tea plants affects the metabolite compositions of tea leaves has not been reported yet. Therefore, we extended the metabolomic approach to the investigation of the age-related differences of tea leaf metabolites in the fresh leaves collected from tea plants aged 8 and 25 years. Multivariate statistical analysis with comprehensive metabolite profiles analyzed by 1H NMR spectroscopy showed the clear metabolic differentiation between the fresh tea leaves from different ages of the tea plants. Of the various tea leaf metabolites varied according to the age of the tea plants, theanine, glutamine, catechin, and gallocatechin were uniquely dependent on the age of tea plants, demonstrating a difference of theanine metabolism between young and old tea plants. These results suggest that leaves from 25-year-old tea plants would still be worthy as a functional ingredient for the production in the food or cosmetic industry rather than quality-enhanced tea infusions for human consumption.
Highlights
Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world
Metabolic differentiations of tea leaves according to plant age A pattern recognition method by multivariate statistical analysis, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projection on latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), was employed for the entire 1H proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) dataset for visualizing the global differences in tea leaf metabolites according to age of tea plant
The PCA model showed the metabolic dependence of tea leaves on growing vintage or year described by the first principle component with 67.3% variations and on the age of tea plants explained by the second principal component with 9.83% (Fig. 2a)
Summary
Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. The five types of teas, such as black, oolong, green, white, and pu-erh teas, are commonly available in the market, in which tea leaves are the typical ingredients [1, 2]. The tea plant is a perennial and economic crop with a productive lifespan that can range up to 100 years [7]. Several studies stressed the importance of peak tea yields and their low productive-driver reasons. The effects of a tea plant’s genotype and environment, management practices, and the interactions between the factors [8] on productivity have been reported, as well as the effect of tea plant age [9]. The age of tea plants has a substantial effect on tea yield and peak yields, which are optimum between the ages of 20 and 40 years and decline afterward [10]. The age of tea plants may be a topic of immense interest for research on the chemical composition of the tea leaf
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