Identification of Chlorophylls and Carotenoids in Major Teas by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Photodiode Array Detection

Abstract

The separation and identification of pigments, chlorophylls, and carotenoids of seven teas and fresh leaf of tea (Camellia sinensis) by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are described. HPLC was carried out using a Symmetry C(8) column with a photodiode array detector. Pigments were eluted with a binary gradient of aqueous pyridine solution at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min at 25 degrees C. HPLC analyses achieved the separation of more than 100 pigment peaks, and 79 pigment species, 41 chlorophylls, and 38 carotenoids were detected. The presence of degraded chlorophylls was a common feature, and the number and the variety of pigments differed with tea species. Generally, the numbers of chlorophyll species tended to increase with processing steps, while carotenoid species were decreased, especially by heating. Particularly in green teas, a change of carotenoid structure, conversion of violaxanthin to auroxanthin, occurred. In hot water extracts of teas, both chlorophylls and carotenoids were also detected, but the concentration of chlorophylls was less than 2% as compared with acetone extracts. The pigment compositions were compared between tea species, and they are discussed in terms of the differences in their manufacturing processes.

Analysis of chemical components in green tea in relation with perceived quality, a case study with Longjing teas

“…Nevertheless, the exact contribution of carotenoids to the quality of taste and colour of green tea has not previously reported yet. This data showed that carotenoids concentrations did not correlate with any quality scores (Table 5), possibly because of low solubility in hot water (Suzuki & Shioi, 2003). Neither of these CIELAB parameters correlated significantly with sensory scores, showing limited applicability of these parameters for the assessment of quality of Longjing teas and not agreeing with the conclusion reached in experiments working with other types of teas (Liang et al ., 2003, 2005).…”

“…During processing, carotenoids degrade to form a number of volatile compounds, highlighting their contribution to aromatic quality of tea (Ravichandran, 2002). Some violaxanthin is also conversed to auroxanthin leading to decreases of the number of carotenoids species (Suzuki & Shioi, 2003). Nevertheless, the exact contribution of carotenoids to the quality of taste and colour of green tea has not previously reported yet.…”

RNA Interference-Based Gene Silencing as an Efficient Tool for Functional Genomics in Hexaploid Bread Wheat

“…The spectrum detected in wild-type untreated plants (peak 3, Supplemental Fig. 5F) showed no phytoene peaks but the characteristics of the compound lutein (Suzuki and Shioi, 2003), which is derived from subsequent series of desaturations and cyclizations in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway when PDS is active. PDS-RNAi transgenic lines, which showed an albino phenotype, also contained two peaks with virtually identical spectra to the spectrum of phytoene from norflurazon-treated wild-type tissue (Supplemental Fig.…”

Effect of supplemental ultraviolet radiation on the carotenoid and chlorophyll composition of green house-grown leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) cultivars

“…Using standards, relative retention times and spectral characteristics (Edelenbos et al, 2001;Kimura and Rodriguez-Amaya, 2003;Suzuki and Shioi, 2003), various chloroplast pigments were identified (Fig. 1).…”