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Influence of thermophilic microorganism on non-volatile metabolites during high-temperature pile-fermentation of Chinese dark tea based on metabolomic analysis

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Abstract

Pile-fermentation is a critical procedure for producing Chinese dark tea, during which thermophilic microorganisms would play an irreplaceable role. However, there have been little researches on the influences of thermophilic microorganism pile-fermentation (TMPF) in high-temperature of Chinese dark tea. Thus, we conducted high-performance liquid chromatography and nontargeted metabolomic to analyze the non-volatile metabolites of TMPF. Our results discovered that the amounts of ( −)-epigallocatechin gallate, ( −)-epigallocatechin, ( −)-epicatechin gallate, and ( −)-epicatechin were decreased significantly (p < 0.05) after TMPF. By using nontargeted metabolomic analysis, a total of 1733 ion features were detected. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that TMPF had a significant impact on caffeine metabolism. Also, theophylline, 3-methylxanthine, and 1,3,7-trimethyluric acid were increased significantly after TMPF, which suggested that demethylation and oxidation reaction might be the main pathways of caffeine metabolism. This study provides a better understanding of the mechanism of TMPF during high-temperature for Chinese dark tea and lays a foundation for further research.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank you for the financial support from the special Project of Hubei Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 2662020YLPY012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology and Tea Science, Department of Horticulture and Forestry Science College, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Wen Zhu, Wenfeng Wang, Wencan Xu, Shuang Wu, Wenjun Chen & Youyi Huang

  2. Institute of Fruit and Tea, Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430064, China

    Shengpeng Wang

Authors
  1. Wen Zhu
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  2. Wenfeng Wang
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  3. Wencan Xu
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  4. Shuang Wu
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  5. Wenjun Chen
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  6. Youyi Huang
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  7. Shengpeng Wang
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Correspondence to Youyi Huang or Shengpeng Wang.

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Zhu, W., Wang, W., Xu, W. et al. Influence of thermophilic microorganism on non-volatile metabolites during high-temperature pile-fermentation of Chinese dark tea based on metabolomic analysis. Food Sci Biotechnol 31, 827–841 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-022-01098-9

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