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Molecular and sensory studies on the umami taste of Japanese green tea.

Kaneko S, Kumazawa K, Masuda H, Henze A, Hofmann T

Material R & D Laboratory, Ogawa & Co. Ltd., Chidori 15-7, 279-0032, Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. kaneko.shu@ogawa.net

Aimed at defining the key drivers for the quality-determining umami taste of a high-grade powdered green tea, called mat-cha, a bioactivity-guided fractionation using solvent extraction, solvent precipitation, preparative chromatographic separations, and human psychophysical experiments was applied on freshly prepared mat-cha. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and one-/two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance studies on isolated fractions led to the identification of l-theanine, succinic acid, 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid (gallic acid), and (1R,2R,3R,5S)-5-carboxy-2,3,5-trihydroxycyclohexyl-3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoate (theogallin) as umami-enhancing compounds in the green tea beverage, and it can be shown by sensory studies that these compounds are able to raise the umami intensity of sodium l-glutamate proportionally.

Published 29 March 2006 in J Agric Food Chem, 54(7): 2688-94.
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