Abstract
To find a suitable method for separating tea tannin compound by means of paper chromato-graphy, we researched on developing solvents, and selected n-butanol saturated with water as the most favorable developing material among 7 solvents used, e.g., ethyl acetate, n-butanol, iso-butan-ol, amyl alcohol, benzyl alcohol, phenol and toluene.
We examined developing temperature and water content of the developing solvent, andfound that the temperature had little influence upon the RF values of tannin spots below 20° and the solvent saturated with water was better than that of lower water content.
We compared tannin composition of 3 tea varieties, i.e. C-8, 3 U-17 and Yabukita, and found that the tannin composition of Yabukita variety was clearly different from that of other two varieties.
