The Effects of Some Agronomic and Processing Practices and Clones on the Relative Composition of the Theaflavins in Black Tea

Abstract

Four main theaflavins:-theaflavin, theaflavin-3-gallate, theaflavin-3'-gallate and theaflavin-3,3'-digallate are produced during black tea processing. For tea fermented for same duration the relative composition of the individual theaflavins varied with clones, but were not affected by agronomic practices like nitrogenous fertilizer rates, planting density, and plucking standards. The relative composition of the theaflavins therefore provides a semiquantitative method of discriminating between clones with large genetic variations and can be used as a quality selection criteria in breeding/clonal selection of black tea.