BIOCHEMISTRY OF TEA FERMENTATION: CONVERSION OF AMINO ACIDS TO BLACK TEA AROMA CONSTITUENTS

SUMMARY: 14C-amino acids were added to fresh tea-leaf homogenate undergoing conversion to black tea. After conversion (30 min, 25°C), the volatile compounds present in the headspace over the reaction mixture were collected and analyzed by gas chromatography. Results showed that leucine, isoleucine, valine and phenylalanine were partially converted to the aldehydes expected from a Strecker degradation. These aldehydes are constituents of black tea aroma. Further, drying of the fermented mixture caused an additional amount of the aldehydes to be formed. In contrast, no detectable volatile compounds were formed from aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glutamine, arginine, threonine. serine or theanine under the same conditions. Production of aldehydes from amino acids was shown to be dependent on the enzymic conversion process: Tea leaf which had been inactivated by steam treatment was not effective in causing formation of volatile aldehydes from the amino acids. Identical results were obtained in a model tea fermentation system composed of a crude soluble enzymes extract from tea leaves, purified epigallocatechin gallate and 14C-amino acids. Ascorbic acid was found to inhibit formation of aldehydes from amino acids in this model tea fermentation system; dehydroascorbic acid by itself was found to be effective in causing formation of volatile aldehydes from amino acids.