Abstract
Currently, two cultivars (‘Hoshinomidori’ and ‘Kiraka’) and two lines (‘Morokozawa’ and ‘Yamabuki’) were cultivated as “white leaf teas” in Japan. Of these four white leaf teas, contents of several chemical compounds of new shoots in the first crop season were compared with those of ‘Yabukita’ as a common green leaf tea cultivar. Values of chlorophyll meter were quite lower in white leaf tea (0.6-8.1) than ‘Yabukita’ (32.7). Of all white leaf teas, the content of free amino acids was extremely high, more than 1.8 folds of ‘Yabukita’. In catechins contents, ‘Morokozawa, Hoshinomidori’ and ‘Kiraka’ were lower than ‘Yabukita’, but ‘Yamabuki’ was similar to ‘Yabukita’. Contents of oxalate, citrate, nitrate ion, aluminum, potassium, calcium, magnesium and manganese were higher in all of four or three white leaf teas than ‘Yabukita’. These suggested that white leaf teas were different from ‘Yabukita’ in the chemical composition, that is, extremely high free amino acid contents with high organic acids and mineral contents.
