INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH LABS OF THE INSTITUTE

1   Lab Of Biotechnology And Its Application To New Products  Development From Tea Resources

      Bio-technique and gene engineering technique are developed and used to breeding of new tea cultivars and development of deep processing tea products. Eight clonal tea cultivars  have been released to farmers growing, including 3 national approved tea cultivars and 5 provincial approval tea cultivars. Resource of Ilex latifolia was discovered and its application technique was developed by scientists from the Lab. Some important genes from tea plant such as PPO gene and SAM gene  were cloned. Aluminum resistant fungus ALF-1 was isolated from tea soil. Enzymatic technology was successfully used in controlling tea cream formation of ready-to-drink tea products and a series of creaming-resistant ready-to-drink tea products were developed. Transgenic technology is now used to develop pest-resistant tea cultivars. To develop techniques controlling biosynthesis of caffeine and polyphenols and tea plant, studies on expression regulation of SAM gene and CHS gene  are now under going. Studies on chemical and physical evaluation of tea quality are attracting many attentions in the fields.

2 Lab Of   Biochemistry And  Processing  Engineering Of Tea

      Strong expertise is focused on the free radicals scavenging mechanism of anti-oxidants from tea plant and healthy functions of tea. Technique for extracting purified low caffeine tea polyphenols was developed. A series of functional foods and medicines have been developed using the purified low caffeine tea polyphenols extracted by the technique.   A series of mini tea processing machines suitable for family use of the small holders were developed. Studies on improvement of traditional Chinese tea processing techniques are going on and producing good social efficiency.

3 Lab Of Management And Culture Of Tea Industry

     Researchers  of the Lab focus their attention on the studies of  history of tea and tea related cultures as well as industrial management of tea enterprises. It is famous for tea related culture education and more than 200 students from Korea and Japan finished their study in the Lab. According to the survey on the economic efficiency of Chinese tea enterprises, a  production model suitable for Chinese tea enterprises was proposed and attracted much attention. Tea trade is also the major research topics of the Lab.