Untargeted and targeted metabolomics reveal the chemical characteristic of pu-erh tea (Camellia assamica) during pile-fermentation

Piaopiao Long, Mingchun Wen, Daniel Granato, Jie Zhou, You Wu, Yan Hou, Liang Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Pile-fermentation is the most important process of producing ripened pu-erh tea. To study the chemical changes of tea leaves during pile-fermentation (PF), liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used. Untargeted metabolomics analysis revealed that the first stage of PF is crucial in transforming the original secondary metabolites, whereas the contents of flavan-3-ols and gallic acid were decreased after long-term PF. Targeted metabolomics analysis indicated that the levels of puerins (N-ethyl-2-pyrrolidinone substituted gallocatechin and catechin) were significant increased after the first stage of PF, but after long-term PF the levels of flavonol glycosides, procyanidins and galloylated flavan-3-ols were significantly decreased. Accordingly, long-term PF also decreased the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities of the extracts. As a conclusion, pile-fermentation is an important step of changing the polyphenols and bioactivities of pu-erh tea.

Original languageEnglish
Article number125895
Pages (from-to)125895
JournalFood Chemistry
Volume311
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • (−)-Epigallocatechin gallate
  • Camellia assamica
  • Flavan-3-ols
  • Metabolomics
  • Pile-fermentation
  • α-glucosidase

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