Camellia Sinensis

~ 0'0 The 3rd International onfercllce on O-CIIA(Tea) Culture and Science 00iA Pr-P-015 ======------l2.!Z COLLECTION OF WILD TEA PLANTS (CAMILLIA SINENSIS L.) AND INVESTIGATION OF PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS FOR GERMPLASM CONSERVATION IN KOREA

Yeon-Sang Song*, Seon-Kyeong Han, Youn-Ho Moon, Byeong-Choon Jeong, and Jin-Ki Bang

*Mokpo Experiment Station, National Institute ofCrop Science (NICS), RDA 293-5 Cheongcheon Cheonggye Muan Jeonnam, 534-833 Korea Tel: +82-61-450-0120, Fax: +82-61-453-0085, E-mail: [email protected]

Summary This study was carried out to collect, propagate the excellence native tea plants, and investigate the principal characters as a genetic resources for tea plant breeding and gene conservation from 2004 to 2006 in Korea. The seeds (143 kg) and cuttings (16,700 cuttings) were collected from 120 locations for three years in the Southern area ofKorea. The results of evaluation after planting of collected gennplasm, index of leaf shape showed as 2.5. Leaf color showed same level after planting regardless collected regions, though they were differed from each other in their original region. Negative correlation was observed in the number of stem and stem length, number of leaf. Several chemical components such as tannin, total nitrogen, caffeine, and catechins were analyzed. Ninety-six percent of the surveyed 293 accessions had mainly 2.2 to 6.3% total nitrogen content. The tannin content was distributed mainly from 5 to 15%. Based on these data, we selected twenty two accessions and propagated to tea plant breeding. The Korean wild tea accessions showed high caffeine, EGC, and ECGC contents. Low caffeine tea plants were observed in Naju and Jangseong county, and the regions with high amino acid content were observed in Yeongam and Muan county.

Keywords: Tea plant, germplasm, collection, characteristics

Introduction In Korea, more than 80% of total tea gardens were made with seed born plant which have low productivity of tea leaf. In order to improve productivity oftea leaf, tea garden should be made with clone cultivars. The matter must be settled without delay. Thus, we collected variable genetic resources from around of Korea and analyzed. In addition, important characteristics such as the morphological and chemical components of tea leaves were evaluated and structured to data base for tea breeding program ofsuperior cultivar. Therefore, we reports here some results obtained surveying the characteristics of the wild tea plants collected from all around ofKorea.

Materials and Methods We surveyed morphological characteristics (No. of leaf, leaf color, No. of stem, stem length) and chemical components (total nitrogen, tannin, caffeine, catechins) after transplanting those in same field. The total nitrogen was analyzed from powdered dried leaves using Kjeldatherm (Gerhardt). For tannin analysis, Sakai's (1974) labor-saving method was used. The preparation method of samples was modified from previous HPLC analysis (Sharma et aI., 2005; Yao et aI., 2004). Total 293 accessions were selected and analyzed to understand the characteristics ofKorean wild tea plants. Results 126· 127· 129·

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Fig 1. Collected location of Korean wild tea plants for three years (from 2004 to 2006) in the Southern area ofKorea.

Table 1. The Northern and the Southernmost latitude, and the Western and Easternmost longitude according to collected regions. Direction Coordinates The name ofcollected region Northernmost 36°02' 50" Ungpo-myeon Iksan-city Jeollabuk-do Southernmost 34° 27' 48" Hyeonsan-myeon Haenam-gun Jeollanam-do Westernmost 126°17' 09" Haeje-myeon Muan-gun Jeollanam-do Easternmost 129°24' 03" Daun-dong Jung-gu Ulsan-metropolitan city (A) (8) (C) 8% 100;.

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Fig 2. The distribution ofhabitation density (A), area (B), and kinds ofplants grown in habitat (C) ofcollected wild tea plants.

Discussion The seeds (143 kg) and cuttings (16,700 cuttings) were collected from 120 locations for three years in the Southern area of Korea. The wild tea plants were mainly habituated Southern area of Korea. The habitats altitude of most of wild tea plants was distributed under 300 meters above the sea level. The soil pH of habitats was observed lower than that of cultivated tea garden. Twenty two accessions were selected based on analytic data of total nitrogen and tannin content. The Korean wild tea accessions showed high caffeine, EOC, and ECOC contents. Low caffeine tea plants were observed in Naju and Jangseong county, and the collected regions with high amino acid content were observed in Yeongam and Muan county.

Acknowledgement This study was supported from the Rural Development Administration (RDA) ofKorea.