Liao Yinyin, Zhou Xiaochen, Zeng Lanting
Key Laboratory of South China Agricultural Plant Molecular Analysis and Genetic Improvement & Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022;62(14):3751-3767. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1868970. Epub 2021 Jan 6.
Tea () is both a plant and a foodstuff. Many bioactive compounds, which are present in the final tea product and related to its quality or functional properties, are produced during the tea manufacturing process. However, the characteristic secondary metabolites, which give tea its unique qualities and are beneficial to human health, are produced mainly in the leaves during the process of plant growth. Therefore, it is important to understand how tea leaves produce these specialized metabolites. In this review, we first compare the common metabolites and specialized metabolites in tea, coffee, cocoa, and grape and discuss the occurrence of characteristic secondary metabolites in tea. Progress in research into the formation of these characteristic secondary metabolites in tea is summarized, including establishing a biological database and genetic transformation system, and the biosynthesis of characteristic secondary metabolites. Finally, speculation on future research into the characteristic secondary metabolites of tea is provided from the viewpoints of the origin, resources, cultivation, and processing of tea. This review provides an important reference for future research on the specialized metabolites of tea in terms of its characteristics.
茶既是一种植物，也是一种食品。最终茶叶产品中存在的许多生物活性化合物与其品质或功能特性相关，这些化合物是在茶叶制造过程中产生的。然而，赋予茶叶独特品质并对人体健康有益的特征性次生代谢产物主要是在植物生长过程中于叶片中产生的。因此，了解茶叶如何产生这些特殊代谢产物很重要。在本综述中，我们首先比较了茶、咖啡、可可和葡萄中的常见代谢产物和特殊代谢产物，并讨论了茶叶中特征性次生代谢产物的存在情况。总结了茶叶中这些特征性次生代谢产物形成的研究进展，包括建立生物学数据库和遗传转化系统，以及特征性次生代谢产物的生物合成。最后，从茶叶的起源、资源、种植和加工等角度对茶叶特征性次生代谢产物的未来研究进行了推测。本综述在茶叶特殊代谢产物的特征方面为未来研究提供了重要参考。
