关于茶的英文资料.pdfVIP

Tea Introduction Tea is the product processed from the leaves and buds of Camellia sinensis. The optimal temperature, humidity and pH of soil for tea production are 15-25ºC, 80-90% with more than 1500mm annual rainfall and 3.5-5.6 respectively (Wong and others 2003). The origin of tea and drinking tea habits can be traced to as early as the year 2738 B.C. in China. The earliest spread of tea from China to other counties was due to the migration of people to southeast countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Later the tea trade between China and other counties increased the consumption and production of tea worldwide. In addition to China, the major tea-production countries include India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Indonesia and Japan (Hara and others 1995e). Classification Tea leaf feature can be a basis for classification : Camellia sinensis var. assamica (L.) and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (L.). The former one has the large, broad and flat leaves with light green color while the latter one has small, narrow and serrate leaves with dark green color (Wong et al., 2003). More frequently, tea is classified based the degree of fermentation: green tea, white tea and dark tea are non-fermented, and the difference between green tea and the latter two is that enzymatic oxidation rarely happens in green tea processing; Oolong and Pu’er tea are semi-fermented, and the difference is that they are partially fermented by endogenous enzyme and anaerobic bacteria respectively; black tea is fully fermented (Peterson and others 2005; Wang and others 2000; Balentine and others 1997; Hara and others 1995d). Chemical compositions Flavonoids There are six classes of flavonoids: flavones, flavanones, isoflavones, flavonols, flavanols and anthocyanins. The predominant flavonoids in tea are flavanols and flavonols. Pu’er contains lowest amount of all favanols among all kinds of tea, but its special fermentation by anaerobic bacteria may contribute to other uniqu