S. L. ]. Tea Sci. 58 (f), 73-78, 1989, Printed In Sri Lanka 
VARIETAL A N D SEASONAL VARIATIONS I N CHEMICAL 
CONSTITUENTS OF TEA {CAMELLIA SINENSIS \l.)0. KUNTZE) 
I N H IMACHAL PRADESH 
R. G. Sud and J. Badyal 
(Tea Fjtperiment Station, Department of Horticulture and Forestry, Himachal Pradesh 
Krlshl Vlshva Vldyalaya, Palampur— 176 062, India) 
Varietal and seasonal variations In chemical constituents In fourteen seed jats of 
tea were - studied throughout four seasons during 1986 and 1987. Better quality 
teas were seen in the spring and summer seasons. The seed Jats Dhoedham and 
Khorljan produced comparatively better quality teas followed by Kalline, Runglee 
and Doom Dodma under Palampur conditions. 
INTRODUCTION 
The terminal shoots plucked from tea bushes are generally used for manufacturing 
black tea. The quality of tea depends primarily upon the variety (jat) of the bush 
(Sanderson 1964; Anon. 1974) and the agro-climatic conditions (Ramaswamy, 1964: 
Oevanathan 1976) prevailing in the area. Numerous works oh the-chemical composi­
tion of tea and its relation to quality have been reported (Roberts, 1962; Bhatia, 
1964: Wood etc/., 1964 o, b; Wood and Roberts, 1964, Wickremasinghe and Perera. 
(973). Polyphenols, caffeine, amino acids, volatile substances, etc. are mainly res­
ponsible for the characters of tea. 
Although tea has been grown in Palampur region of Himachal Pradesh since 
1852, no systematic chemical analyses in relation to its quality have been reported. 
Earlier Mehta and Katoch (1968) and Mehta, Marwah arid Sharma (1975) evaluated 
the performance of different seed jats for yield and quality (tasters' valuation). The 
present work was undertaken to study the chemical variations in green shoots of 
different jats of tea bushes grown at the Tea Experiment Station, Palampur and to 
rdate.. them to the seasons. 
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MATERIALS AND METHODS« 
All the materials were obtained from the Tea Experiment Station, Palampur 
(latitude, 32'6'N and longitude, 70°3' East; elevation 1290 m.amsl). The climate of 
this region is sub-temperate humid, with a slightly hot and humid summer and cold 
winter season* . The experimental plot was. laid out In 1965 in a randomized block 
design. Chemical analyses of shoots were done In the following Jats of tea : 
Jat' Source 
Dhoedham, Kalline, Dekhari, Samsingh, Assam 
Rajgurh, Khorijan, Alister's Dhonjan, 
Doom Dooma, Dangri 
Tumsong, Runglee, Lingla, Badamtam Darjeeling 
Local .Kangra Kangra Valley 
Sampling was carried out randomly over four seasons i.e. March-April (spring), 
May-June (summer), July-August (monsoon) and September-October (back end crop). 
Freshly plucked shoots were steamed immediately and then dried at a constant 
temperature of 60°C for 48 h. Different nitrogenous constituents were estimated 
by mlcro-kjeldahl method (Wood et al, 1964 a). Total caffeine was extracted in 
chloroform and weighed directly after evaporating the solvent; Polyphenols were 
estimated spectrop'hotometrically by the method of Swain and Hills. (1959). The 
data for quality were pooled and analysed after subjecting to angular transformation. 
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RESULTS A N D D ISCUSSION 
The results of analyses of chemical constituents between varieties and between 
seasons are presented in Tables I and 2. 
TABLE I — Varietal variations in chemical composition (% dry weight basis) of green 
tea shoots 
Variety Total-N Soluble-N Amino Caffeine Polyphe­
acid-N nols 
1. Dhoedham 5.02 2.63 1.37 4.06 29.36 
(12.72)* (9.31) (6.70) (11.59) (32.44; 
2. Tumsong 4.48 2.42 1.37 3.25 21.45 
(12.20) (8.90) (6.65) (10.32) (27.08) 
3. Kalline 5.13 2.47 1.20 4.23 26.99 
(13.08) (9.03) (6.27) (11.86) (30.93) 
4. Runglee 4.92 2.50 1.35 3.92 22.94 
(12.81) (9.07) (6.68) (11.39) (28.29) 
5. Dekharl 4.88 2.37 1.20 4.02 20.20 
(12.82) (8.87) (6.30) (11.57) (26.34) 
6. Samsingh 4.80 2.51 1.28 3.83 27.18 
(12.65) (9.11) (6.56) (11.35) (31.34) 
7. Rajgurh 4.99 2.30 1.12 3.87 24.34 
(12.98) (8.71) (6.05) (11.34) (29.39) 
8. Llngia 4.86 2.18 0.95 4.31 22.19 
(12.73) (8.49) (5.54) (11.95) (27.49) 
9. Local Kangra 4.51 2.59 0.97 3.85 21.24 
(12.24) (8.30) (5.67) (11.27) (27.01) 
10. Khorijan 5.18 2.45 1.09 4.66 21.27 
(13.15) (9.00) (6.04) (12.44) (26.89) 
II. Doom Dooma 4.89 2.42 1.13 4.25 23.25 
(12.83) (8.93) (6.08) (11.90) (28.41) 
12. Dangri 4.79 2.60 1.41 4.12 22.66 
(12.63) (9.20) (6.67) (11.75) (28.00) 
13. Badamtam 4.66 2.21 1.02 4.11 22.06 
(12.46) (8.50) (5.72) (11.68) (27.63) 
14. Dhonjan 5.07 2.39 1.06 4.53 22.33 
(12.78) (8.90) (5.88) (12.27) (28.13) 
Mean 4.84 2.43 1.18 4.C7 23.39 
(12.71) (8.88) (6.20) (11.62) (28.53) 
CD(variety) 5% 0.17 0.19 0.27 0.32 0.82 
* Figures In parentheses are angular transformed values. 
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TABLE 2 - Seasonal variations In chemical compositions (% dry weight basis) of green 
tea shoots 
Total-N Soluble-N Amino Caffeine Polyphe­
Seasons (Mean values) acid-N nols 
March/April 5.15 2.52 1.23 4.43 14.69 
(13.11) • (9.13) (6.37) (12.18) (22.16) 
May/June 5.21 2.65 1.40 4.21 26.17 
(13.21) (9.38) (6.71) (11.82) (30.58) 
July/August 4.44 2.30 1.14 3.93 24.90 
(12.17) (8.73) (6.10) (11.40) (29.66) 
September/October 4.58 2.38 0.97 3.73 27.80 
(12.36) (8.27) (5.63) (11.08) (31.70) 
CD (Season) 5% 0.09 0.10 0.14 0.17 0.44 
CD(Variety x Season) 5% 0.35 0.38 0.55 0.64 1.64 
* Figures in parentheses are angular transformed values. 
The highest total nitrogen content was observed in Khorijan followed by Kalline 
and Rajgurh; all the three jats were statistically superior to other jats under study. 
The lowest total nitrogen content was noticed in Tumsong and local Kangra. Differ­
ences among seasons were irregular but significant. There was no difference in total 
nitrogen between the plucks of April and May/June. However, the percentage of 
total nitrogen decreased during the rainy season; but increased significantly during 
September/October. These observations were in conformity with the earlier studies 
(Evans, 1930, Ramaswamy, 1964) where the level of soluble solids and nitrogenous 
substances was found to be higher during the dry season than the wet season. 
The soluble nitrogen varied from 9.31 to 8.30 and 9.38 to 8.27 amongst the jats 
and during seasons, respectively. Highest soluble nitrogen was in Dhoedham and 
Dangri while local Kangra had the lowest soluble nitrogen content. It also varied 
significantly during different seasons. Like total nitrogen, soluble nitrogen content 
was also found to be significantly higher, in most of the jats, during dry seasons than 
the wet seasons. However, it was lower in ehe September/October flush. Similar 
results have been reported by Wood et of. (1964 a) in Assam tea leaf. 
Amino acid nitrogen content ranged from 6.70 to 5.54 among the different jats. 
There was no difference in the amino acid content in the seed jats, namely, Dhoedham, 
Runglee, Dangri, Tumsong and Samsingh which produced high amounts of amino acid 
than the other jats. It is probable that-such high levels may be due to the greater 
content of theanine in green tea as compared to black tea (Wickremasinghe, 1978). 
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Considering the different seasons, it is seen that significantly higher amino 
acid-N content was seen in June followed by April and August. Significant differe­
nces between the interaction of varieties and seasons were also observed. 
Caffeine plays an important part in determining the taste (Millin, Crispin and 
Swaine, 1969) and briskness (Roberts, 1962) of tea beverages. In the present studies 
caffeine content varied between 12.44 (Khorijan) to 10.32 (Tumsong) for different 
varieties and 12.18 to 11.08 for different seasons. The variation among the four 
seasons were significant w !th the April flush showing markedly higher levels followed 
by a decreasing trend towards the back end crop season. Similar results have been 
reported by Sanderson (1964) for inter-clonal variations and Wood et al. (1964 a) for 
seasonal variations. The interactions between varieties and seasons were also 
significant. 
The polyphenolic content, in general, was quite low in all the seed jats. This 
could be due to the agro-climatic conditions and soils of this region. Significant 
variations were noticed between different jats. Dhoedham contained the maximum 
polyphenol content while Dekhari had the lowest. The seasons have a marked 
effect on the polyphenolic content which varied significantly among the seasons 
(Evans, 1930). These were found to be higher during the back end seasons than the 
rest of the season. Similar observations regarding seasonal variations have been 
reported by Bhatia (1964). The interactions of varieties and seasons were also 
significant. 
From Table I it seems probable that Dhoedham and Khorijan have better quality 
characteristics followed by Kalline, Runglee and Doom Dooma. There is evidence 
that the monsoon season affected the chemical constituents adversely and that the 
quality of the April to June flush was better than the back end crop (Table 2). The 
polyphenol content was found to be significantly higher in the back end crop season. 
In general, there are significant variations in chemical constituents between varieties 
and seasons. 
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