Geographical and climatic dependencies of green tea (Camellia sinensis) metabolites: a (1)H NMR-based metabolomics study.
The effects of climatic conditions on green tea metabolites in three different growing areas of Jeju Island, South Korea, were investigated through global metabolite profiling by (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Pattern recognition methods, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projection on latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), revealed clear discriminations of green teas from the three different growing areas. Variations of theanine, isoleucine, leucine, valine, alanine, threonine, glutamine, quinic acid, glucose, epicatechin (EC), epigallocatechin (EGC), epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), and caffeine levels were responsible for the discriminations. Green teas grown in an area with high temperature, long sun exposure time, and high rainfall had higher levels of theanine but lower levels of isoleucine, leucine, valine, alanine, EC, EGC, EGCG, and caffeine than those grown in areas with relatively low temperature, short sun exposure time, and low rainfall. These results indicate that high temperature, long sun exposure, and high preciptation stimulate theanine synthesis in green tea during the spring season. This study highlights how metabolomics coupled with multivariate statistical analysis can illuminate the metabolic characteristics of green tea associated with climatic variables, thereby allowing for the assessment of quality strategy in green tea production.
Lee
Jang-Eun
JE
School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea.
Lee
Bum-Jin
BJ
Chung
Jin-Oh
JO
Hwang
Jeong-Ah
JA
Lee
Sang-Jun
SJ
Lee
Cherl-Ho
CH
Hong
Young-Shick
YS
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D002110:Caffeine / Q000032:analysis; D028241:Camellia sinensis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002392:Catechin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D002980:Climate; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005971:Glutamates / Q000032:analysis; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D056910:Republic of Korea
D000596:Amino Acids; D005971:Glutamates; D002110:Caffeine; C026166:theanine; D002392:Catechin; C045651:epigallocatechin gallate; C057580:gallocatechol