Topics and trends in fresh tea (Camellia sinensis) leaf research: A comprehensive bibliometric study

YiQin Chen; YunFei Li; ChengWen Shen; LiZheng Xiao

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1092511

Topics and trends in fresh tea (Camellia sinensis) leaf research: A comprehensive bibliometric study

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Apr 6:14:1092511. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1092511. eCollection 2023.

Authors

YiQin Chen^{1

2

3

4}, YunFei Li^{1

2

3

4}, ChengWen Shen^{1

2

3

4}, LiZheng Xiao^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Tea Science of Ministry of Education, College of Horticulture, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.
² National Research Center of Engineering and Technology for Utilization of Botanical Functional Ingredients, Changsha, China.
³ Co-Innovation Center of Education Ministry for Utilization of Botanical Functional Ingredients, Changsha, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Evaluation and Utilization of Gene Resources of Horticultural Crops, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.

Abstract

Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is a widely cultivated cash crop and tea is a favorite functional food in the world. Fresh tea leaves (FTLs) play a critical role in bridging the two fields closely related to tea cultivation and tea processing, those are, tea plant biology and tea biochemistry. To provide a comprehensive overview of the development stages, authorship collaboration, research topics, and hotspots and their temporal evolution trends in the field of FTLs research, we conducted a bibliometric analysis, based on 971 publications on FTLs-related research published during 2001-2021 from Web of Science Core Collection. CiteSpace, R package Bibliometrix, and VOSviewer were employed in this research. The results revealed that the development history can be roughly divided into three stages, namely initial stage, slow development stage and rapid development stage. Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry published most articles in this field, while Frontiers in Plant Science held the highest total citations and h-index. The most influential country, institution, and author in this field was identified as China, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Xiaochun Wan, respectively. FTLs-related research can be categorized into three main topics: the regulation mechanism of key genes, the metabolism and features of essential compounds, and tea plants' growth and stress responses. The most concerning hotspots are the application of advanced technologies, essential metabolites, leaf color variants, and effective cultivation treatments. There has been a shift from basic biochemical and enzymatic studies to studies of molecular mechanisms that depend on multi-omics technologies. We also discussed the future development in this field. This study provides a comprehensive summary of the research field, making it easier for researchers to be informed about its development history, status, and trends.

Keywords: Camellia sinensis; bibliometrics; catechins; fresh tea leaves; tea plant stress response; tea quality; theanine.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The work was supported by Hunan Province Science and Technology Major Special Project: Hunan 100-Billion-Yuan Tea Industrial Chain Key Technology Innovation and Demonstration (2021NK1020-2), Modern Tea Industry Technology in Hunan Province (XNCZ2021-37), and China Scholarship Council (202209177002, 202209177014).