Abstract
The aim of this report is to present the relationships between the colorimetric measures and chlorophyll content per fresh weight of tea leaves, which is considered to have a great effect on the quality of tea leaves. Moreover, the applicability of the three ingredient values (L, a, b) in Hunter's colorimetric renotation system to the estimation of the chlorophyll content in green leaves was tested experimentally and statistically.
The results are as follows:
1. High correlations were found between the three ingredient values in Hunter renotation system and the amount of chlorophyll in tea leaves.
2. Significantly high coefficients of correlation were obtained between the chlorophyll content and Hue(b/a), Value(L) and Chroma (√a2+b2) respectively, which are known as three attributes of color; and as Chroma changed from bright to dim, the amount of chlorophyll increased gradually.
3. There was a high negative correlation between the amount of chlorophyll and the color difference (ΔE).
4. The multiple regression equation for estimating the amount of chlorophyll (Y) from the three ingredient values was given as follows:
Y=2.7754-0.0541L-0.1383a-0.1120b
Its multiple correlation coefficient was 0.838∗∗.
