Abstract:

The main chemical and fatty acid composition in tea seed kernels of four common species of tea trees,
‘Fuding Dabaicha’, ‘Jinxuan’, ‘Qianmei 419’ and ‘Yunkang 10’ were analyzed by the Chinese national standards and gas
chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Water and protein contents in tea seed kernels of ‘Jinxuan’ were significantly
(P ＜ 0.05) higher than those of three other species. Its ash content was also significantly higher than that of ‘Yunkang 10’,
but there was no significant difference between ‘Fuding Dabaicha’ and ‘Qianmei 419’. The contents of crude fiber and fatty
acids in ‘Fuding Dabaicha’ were 3.64% and 27.91%, respectively, which are significantly higher than those of three other
species. The contents of starch and saponin were significantly different among four different species with the highest values
being found in ‘Yunkang 10’. The content of tea polyphenols in ‘Qianmei 419’ (1.17%) was significantly higher than three
other species. Totally 15 fatty acids were identified in tea seed kernels from all the tested species. The content of unsaturated
fatty acids in ‘Qianmei 419’ was the highest, followed by ‘Jinxuan’, ‘Fuding Dabaicha’, and ‘Yunkang 10’.

Key words: tea seed kernels, chemical composition, fatty acids, comparative analysis