Studies on the Nucleotides in Tea

Part I. Nucleotides in green tea

Abstract

Isolation, identification and determination of nucleotides in green tea were carried out in order to understand their distribution patterns in manufactured tea.
Nucleotides in the aqueous extracts of green tea were fractionated by anion-exchange column, and identified by paper chromatography, spectral and chemical analyses.
Eight fractions were obtained by Dowex 1-X8 column chromatography from the boiled extract of green tea. Among them 5 fractions were identified as the obromine, 5'-AMP, 5'-UMP, 5'-GMP and ADP.
As the results of column chromatography, it was found that distribution patterns of nucleotides in several kinds of green tea were resembled each other, and in general, 5'-AMP and 5'-UMP were the major components among the nucleoside monophosphates.