패턴인식법에 의한 시판 녹차의 산지 및 채엽시기 추정

Estimation of Harvest Period and Cultivated Region of Commercial Green Tea by Pattern Recognition

Quantitative analysis of (+)-catechin (C), (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECG) and caffeine in commercial green tea was carried out by HPLC employing gradient elution of 0.1% acetic acid and acetonitrile on ODS column. The optimized HPLC method provided satisfactory linearity, accuracy and precision. The relationship between the concentration of the components and cultivated region of the commercial green tea was not significant, while the concentration of EGCG, ECG and caffeine decreased significantly in the later harvested green tea samples (p<0.01). Multivariate analysis of the components was performed in order to characterize and evaluate the cultivated region and harvest period-related variation. Hierarchical clustering and discriminant analysis were applied to classify the geographical and seasonal origins of the green tea samples. The classification accuracy of the cultivated region and harvest period by discriminant analysis was 95% and 91%, respectively, indicating that this methode could be reliable and convenient for the quality control of herbal products with different origin.