Key umami taste contributors in Longjing green tea uncovered by integrated means of sensory quantitative descriptive analysis, metabolomics, quantification analysis and taste addition experiments

Xujiang Shan; Yongwen Jiang; Shan Zhang; Le Chen; Linchi Niu; Qianting Zhang; Qinghua Zhou; Yujie Wang; Haibo Yuan; Jia Li

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139628

Key umami taste contributors in Longjing green tea uncovered by integrated means of sensory quantitative descriptive analysis, metabolomics, quantification analysis and taste addition experiments

Food Chem. 2024 May 11:453:139628. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139628. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xujiang Shan¹, Yongwen Jiang², Shan Zhang³, Le Chen⁴, Linchi Niu², Qianting Zhang³, Qinghua Zhou⁵, Yujie Wang⁶, Haibo Yuan⁷, Jia Li⁸

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China; State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.
² Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China; School of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Sciences, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China; College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
⁵ College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China. Electronic address: 192168092@tricaas.com.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Biology, Genetics and Breeding of Special Economic Animals and Plants, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tea Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310008, China. Electronic address: jiali1986@tricaas.com.

PMID: 38761731
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.139628

Abstract

Umami taste is a key criteria of green tea quality evaluation. The aim of this study was to comprehensively explore the key umami taste contributors in Longjing tea. The taste and molecular profiles of 36 Longjing green tea infusions were characterized by sensory quantitative descriptive analysis and LC-MS based metabolomics, respectively. By uni-/multi-variate statistical analysis, 84 differential compounds were screened among tea infusions with varied umami perceptions. Among them, 17 substances were identified as candidate umami-enhancing compounds, which showed significant positive correlations with umami intensities. Their natural concentrations were accurately quantified, and their umami taste-modifying effects were further investigated by taste addition into glutamic acid solution. Glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glutamine, theanine, phenylalanine, histidine, theogallin, galloylglucose, 1,2,6-trigalloylglucose significantly enhanced the umami taste. This study uncovered for the first time of some bitter amino acids and galloylglucose homologous series as important umami-enhancers, which provided a novel perspective into the tea taste.

Keywords: Amino acids; Galloylglucose; Longjing tea; Metabolomics; Quantitative descriptive analysis; Umami.