Traceability of Guizhou green tea production areas based on multi‐element characteristics combined with biochemical components

Summary The unique geographical environment of Guizhou has created the unique quality characteristics of green tea. To distinguish green tea from different regions in Guizhou, and provide a theoretical basis for origin traceability and quality evaluation for producers and consumers, this article analysed 12 mineral elements, 2 stable isotopes and 3 biochemical components in green tea samples from different regions in Guizhou, and combined with analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS–DA), the possibility of identifying and distinguishing the origin of green tea in Guizhou was studied. The results show that LDA has the highest discriminant accuracy, which can reach 93.3%. In addition, the data showed that Ca, Zn, Mn, Cr, Pb, As and caffeine were important variables to distinguish green tea samples from different regions of Guizhou.