At the early, middle and late periods of the first and second flushes, the leaves were pluked from a garden in our station. Lipid content of those plucked tea leaves and fatty acid composition of individual lipids were estimated.
Tea leaves contained mono and digalactosyl diglyceride mainly, and phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, sterol glycoside, sterol, triglyceride and other several lipids were also contained. Galactolipid content increased during the growth of tea leaves, while phospholipid content decreased. Phospholipids were contained more in tea leaves of the first flush than those of the second flush. On the other hand, galactolipid content of tea leaves in the first flush were lower than that in the second fiush.
Total fatty acid content of tea leaves increased during growth. Tea leaves of the second flush contained more amounts of fatty acids than those of the first flush.
Considering the fatty acid composition of individual lipids, linolenic acid was dominant component in the galactolipids, while linoleic acid was contained mainly in the phospholipids.
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