The Lipids of Tea

Lipid is a compound with biochemical and food-chemical importance. Particular ly, it is known that the lipid changes by heating or oxidation etc. during the course of processing and storage of foods, resulting in loss of amino acids10> , browningSl , and formation of bitter taste compounds14> or volatile compounds0>, and these changes exert effects on food quality related mainly to food flavor. Therefore, it is necessary to examine tea lipids from that point of view. With regard to the tea lipids, results of chemical analysis of seed lipid 1~>, polar lipid of leaves11 >, sterol of Jeaveso>, etc. as well as formation of flavor compounds from fatty acids during manufacturing black tea7 , 12l, and changes of lipids during the storage of black tealilJ have been reported so far. As the author and his co-workers have clarified the kinds of lipids and fatty acids contained in tea shoots 1>, and examined differences in lipid contents caused by different growing conditions of tea shoots11, and changes of lipids occurring during manufacture and s torage of green tea·1.~l , the results of these studies will be presented briefly.