title: Characterization of pu-erh tea using chemical and metabolic profiling approaches.
abstract: In this study, the chemical constituents of pu-erh tea, black tea, and green tea, as well as those of pu-erh tea products of different ages, were analyzed and compared using a chemical profiling approach. Differences in tea processing resulted in differences in the chemical constituents and the color of tea infusions. Human biological responses to pu-erh tea ingestion were also studied by using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOFMS) in conjunction with multivariate statistical techniques. Metabolic alterations during and after pu-erh tea ingestion were characterized by increased urinary excretion of 5-hydroxytryptophan, inositol, and 4-methoxyphenylacetic acid, along with reduced excretion of 3-chlorotyrosine and creatinine. This study highlights the potential for metabonomic technology to assess nutritional interventions and is an important step toward a full understanding of pu-erh tea and its influence on human metabolism.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guoxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Mao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Yungang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Mingming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Mingfeng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Aihua
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiaojiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Tianlu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jia