Abstract:
Tea is an ancient and popular beverage. It has various merits for human health
such as antibacterial, antiviral, diuretic, and anti-carcinogenic effects. Tea has
been consumed in the world such as green, black, yellow, white, oolong and
purple teas. Plant pigments available in tea has many health properties. It is
important to develop new tea cultivars with variable amounts of pigments. This
study focused on quantification of chlorophylls and carotenoids in fresh tea
leaves of a new hybrid progeny derived from crossing TRI 3055 and TRI 2043
during December 2019 to January 2020 as dry season and February 2020 to
March 2020 as wet season. Two fresh leaves and bud from 68 accessions were
obtained from field number 9, St.Coombs state, with 2 replicates from one
sample. The annual pigments contents in fresh tea leaves were extracted using
acetone 80% (v/v) and quantified using standard spectrophotometric method.
Absorbance of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids were measured at
663 nm, 646 nm and 470 nm, respectively. Significant difference (p<0.05) was
not observed for chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and
carotenoids between accessions developed from direct cross and reciprocal
cross. Content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll was
significantly high in wet season. Total chlorophyll content was varied from 3.90
mg/g 9.24 mg/g. Total carotenoids concentration was ranged from 0.24 mg/g to
0.77 mg/g. Accession number 34 reported high carotenoid (0.58 mg/g) and low
chlorophyll content (4.16 mg/g), which could be a potential cultivar for yellow
tea production. Accessions numbers 41, 45, 109, 78 and 151 with high
chlorophyll content were identified as good accessions for black tea production.
Information generated from the study is useful in identifying potential
accessions for producing yellow tea and black tea.
