Abstract:

Amino acids are believed to be important to green tea quality. In this paper, green tea leaves were dried using microwave under vacuum, and effect of this processing on the amino acids content in the tea leaves was determined. Single-factor experiments showed that amino acids content was influenced by microwave power, vacuum degree and heating time. Through response surface analysis, the optimum drying conditions were obtained as follows: the microwave power 784 W, vacuum degree 65.8 kPa and heating time 11.3 min, with the amino acids content at 3.75% under such conditons.

Key words: green tea, microwave-vacuum drying, amino acid, response surface methodolog