투고논문

NMR Metabolomic Profiles for Quality Control of Korean Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) Classified by the Plucking Season

Kwang-Ho Choi¹, Ji Su Park², Hyeon Su Kim², Ye Hun Choi², Jun Hyeok Jeon² and Joon-Hwa Lee^1,*

¹Department of Chemistry and RINS, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52828, South Korea

²Gyeongnam Science High School, Jinju, Gyeongnam 52620, South Korea

Abstract The plucking season of green tea leaves is one of the important parameters that decide their metabolic diversity, quality, and prices. The effects of plucking seasons on green tea metabolites were investigated through metabolite profiling by ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The orthogonal projection on latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) showed clear discriminations of green teas by three different grades depending on plucking seasons: Ujeon, Sejak, and Jungjak. These results suggested that the nine peak groups could be used for diagnostics for identification of high quality Ujeon grade of green tea.