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Abstract Recent metabolomics studies have reported diverse metabolites of tea depending on tea (Camellia sinensis) cultivars, cultivation conditions and geographical location. However, these studies were limited the effects of these conditions on metabolome of tea leaves in a single year. We explored the year-to-year variations in leaf metabolome of two tea (C. sinensis) cultivars over a period of five successive years from 2015 to 2019 to determine vintage tea products, such as in grapes or wines, and showed a clear metabolic differentiations of fresh tea leaves. Also, the best conditions of climate were suggested through an association of rainfall and sun-expose time with the metabolism of theanine in taste- or flavor-rich tea cultivar and of catechin compounds in EGCG3″Me-rich tea cultivar, thereby providing the potential vintage tea tailored to the cultivar. Since vintage wine is derived from grapes grown in a year under good climatic conditions, which provides high quality of wine in the best year, the current result highlights important information relevant to tea metabolome associated with climatic conditions in a specific year and the manufacture of vintage tea with unique quality. Graphical Abstract

This article includes experimental data on the identification of epigallocatechin-3-O-(3-O-methyl)-gallate (EGCG3′′Me) by 2-dimensional (2D) proton (1H) NMR analysis and on the information of amino acid and catechin compound profiles by HPLC analysis in leaf extracts of various tea cultivars. These data are related to the research article “Metabolic phenotyping of various tea (Camellia sinensis L.) cultivars and understanding of their intrinsic metabolism” (Ji et al., 2017) [1]. The assignment for EGCG3x′′Me by 1H NMR analysis was also confirmed with spiking experiment of its pure chemical.

Previous reports on phytochemicals in green tea (GT) and processed teas mainly focused on more representative compounds such as catechins. Here, we focus on the insignificantly studied non-catechin components in tea extracts, and explore the multivariate correlation between diverse phenolic compounds in tea and the in vitro antioxidant and anticancer effects. Extracts from GT and four types of processed teas were further divided into hydrophilic and hydrophobic fractions, whose phenolic compositions and antioxidant capacities were quantified using HPLC-MS and three antioxidant assays, respectively. For three types of teas, the anticancer effects of their extracts and fractions were assessed using cancer cell lines. The hydrophobic fractions had lower antioxidant capacities than the corresponding hydrophilic fractions, but exhibited superior antiproliferative effects on cancer cells compared with the whole extract and the hydrophilic fraction. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis revealed a strong correlation between the anticancer effects and the theaflavins and flavonols. Therefore, in addition to catechins, the hydrophobic fraction of tea extracts may have beneficial health effects.

Seed oil triacylglycerol (TAG) composition of 32 soybean varieties were determined and compared using 1H-NMR. The contents of linolenic (Ln), linoleic (L), and oleic (O) ranged from 10.7% to 19.3%, 37.4%–50.1%, and 15.7%–34.1%, respectively. As is evident, linoleic acid was the major fatty acid of soybean oil. Compositional differences among the varieties were observed. Natural oils containing unsaturated groups have been regarded as important nutrient and cosmetic ingredients because of their various biological activities. The TAG profiles of the soy bean oils could be useful for distinguishing the origin of seeds and controlling the quality of soybean oils. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in which the TAG composition of various soybean oils has been analyzed using the 1H-NMR method.

Lutein is a naturally occurring carotenoid with antioxidative, antitumorigenic, antiangiogenic, photoprotective, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective properties. Although the anti-inflammatory effects of lutein have previously been described, the mechanism of its anti-inflammatory action has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate the regulatory activity of lutein in the inflammatory responses of skin-derived keratinocytes or macrophages and to elucidate the mechanism of its inhibitory action. Lutein significantly reduced several skin inflammatory responses, including increased expression of interleukin-(IL-) 6 from LPS-treated macrophages, upregulation of cyclooxygenase-(COX-) 2 from interferon-γ/tumor necrosis-factor-(TNF-) α-treated HaCaT cells, and the enhancement of matrix-metallopeptidase-(MMP-) 9 level in UV-irradiated keratinocytes. By evaluating the intracellular signaling pathway and the nuclear transcription factor levels, we determined that lutein inhibited the activation of redox-sensitive AP-1 pathway by suppressing the activation of p38 and c-Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK). Evaluation of the radical and ROS scavenging activities further revealed that lutein was able to act as a strong anti-oxidant. Taken together, our findings strongly suggest that lutein-mediated AP-1 suppression and anti-inflammatory activity are the result of its strong antioxidative and p38/JNK inhibitory activities. These findings can be applied for the preparation of anti-inflammatory and cosmetic remedies for inflammatory diseases of the skin.

(−)-Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) has long been known as a potent inducer of keratinocyte differentiation. Although its molecular mechanisms have been extensively studied, its actions on human skin remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that methylated EGCG and EGCG increase the expression of klotho, and that klotho functions as a downstream target of EGCG and methylated EGCG in keratinocyte differentiation. We demonstrated that methylated EGCG3 and EGCG induce morphological changes in normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) that are related to up-regulation of klotho expression. We also demonstrated that a klotho-induced keratinocyte differentiation marker in NHEKs is inhibited by H-89, a protein kinase (PKA) inhibitor. These results suggest that methylated EGCG and EGCG may function as inducers of keratinocyte differentiation via transcriptional regulation of the klotho protein.

Based on double pseudo-testcross theory, a population of 79 F1 clones, which was derived from a crossing of two tea cultivars using a Japanese tea cultivar ‘‘Fushun’’ (Camellia sinensis) as female parent and a Korean tea cultivar ‘‘Kemsull’’ (C. sinensis) as male parent, was applied to construct a genetic linkage map with different molecular markers. Previously, 143 random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) markers and 11 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci developed from 41 decamer random primers and 60 published SSR primer pairs, respectively, were used into our mapping analysis. In the study of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), 2439 bands were generated from 27 primer combinations with an average number of 90.3 bands for each, of which 495 (20.3%) were polymorphic. The majority of those polymorphic markers segregated in accordance with Mendelian segregation ratios at p\0.01 for 400 (80.8%) or at p\0.05 for 382 (77.2%), of which 136 (34.0%) or 131 (34.3%) were at 3:1 segregation ratios and 264 (66.0%) or 251 (65.7%) were at 1:1 segregation ratios at p\0.01 and p\0.05, respectively. For developing more SSR markers, the transcriptome sequences of flowers and leaves of two parents were obtained using high throughput RNA sequencing and compared. Afterwards, 1800 potential polymorphic SSR markers were successfully developed and 296 of them were selected and experimentally validated with a subset of tea plants (including two parents and six F1 offspring), from which 75 (25.3%) were repeatably amplified and polymorphic between two parents. From that, 29 (38.7%) newly mined SSR markers were heterozygous in ‘‘Fushun’’ and/or ‘‘Kemsull’’ and showed segregant genotypes in F1 seedlings and were adoptable by Join Map 4.0. Totally, 678 markers including 143 RAPDs, 11 public SSRs, 495 AFLPs, and 29 newly mined SSRs were conjointly used to construct a combined linkage map for tea plant. The new genetic map located 79 RAPDs, 5 public SSRs, 214 AFLPs, and 11 new SSRs developed from RNA seq technique and covered 1441.6 cM with an average distance of 4.7 cM between two adjacent markers. This map will lay a foundation for qualitative or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) analysis of important agronomic traits for tea plant in the future study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seed oil triacylglycerol (TAG) composition of 32 soybean varieties were determined and compared using 1H-NMR. The contents of linolenic (Ln), linoleic (L), and oleic (O) ranged from 10.7% to 19.3%, 37.4%-50.1%, and 15.7%-34.1%, respectively. As is evident, linoleic acid was the major fatty acid of soybean oil. Compositional differences among the varieties were observed. Natural oils containing unsaturated groups have been regarded as important nutrient and cosmetic ingredients because of their various biological activities. The TAG profiles of the soy bean oils could be useful for distinguishing the origin of seeds and controlling the quality of soybean oils. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in which the TAG composition of various soybean oils has been analyzed using the 1H-NMR method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]