Abstract
The tea (Camellia sinensis cv. ‘Yabukita’) leaves grown under the strong shading treatment are tinged with white as well as increase the content of amino acids. We investigated the effects on the tea leaves by this treatment, using nine distantly-related cultivars. As a result, all cultivars’ leaves turned white color dramatically and increased the content of amino acids. It was considered that the change of tea leaf color under this treatment has nothing to do with genotype, since amino acids in white leaves grown under this treatment differ in composition from those in normal white leaf tea cultivars. Accordingly, this technique is expected to be applicable for any tea cultivars.
