Micropropagation of tea (Camellia sinensis L.)

Abstract

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.), of family Theacea is the oldest non-alcoholic caffeine containing beverage crop in the world. Chinese were the first to use tea as a medicinal drink, later as beverage and have been doing so for the past 3000 years (Eden, 1958). Today, tea has become the most popular and cheapest beverage drink world-wide. The cultivated taxa comprise of three main natural hybrids which are: C. sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze or China tea, C. assamica (Masters) or Assam tea and C. assamica sub sp. lasiocalyx (Planchon ex Watt.) or Cambod tea or Southern tea. Tea is an evergreen, perennial, cross-pollinated plant and grows naturally as tall as 15 meters. However, under cultivated condition, the bush height 60-100 cm is maintained for harvesting the young leaves, which continues even more than 100 years. The flowers are white in colour and born singly or in pairs at the axils. The fruits are green in colour with 2-3 seeds and start bearing within 5-6 years after planting. Leaf is the main criterion by which three types of tea are classified. Briefly, a) Assam type has biggest leaves, b) China type has smallest leaves, and c) Cambod leaves size are in-between of both, Assam and China type.