Simultaneous analysis of purine alkaloids and catechins in Camellia sinensis, Camellia ptilophylla and Camellia assamica var. kucha by HPLC

Simultaneous analysis of purine alkaloids and catechins in tea from dry leaves of Camellia sinensis, Camellia ptilophylla and Camellia assamica var. kucha by a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method. This HPLC method had been proved to be appropriate for the identification and quantification of purine alkaloids and catechins, and exhibited good correlation coefficients, detection levels and recovery rates. Caffeine, theobromine, theacrine, (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, (−)-epigallocatechin, (−)-epigallocatechin gallate, (−)-epicatechin gallate, (−)-gallocatechin gallate and (−)-gallocatechin were identified and quantified in the three species of genus Camellia Sect. Thea. There was 2.72% caffeine and 0.26% theobromine in C. sinensis, 4.85% theobromine in C. ptilophylla, and 1.58% theacrine, 0.94% caffeine and 0.45% theobromine in C. assamica var. kucha. Theacrine in C. sinensis and C. ptilophylla, and caffeine in C. ptilophylla were not detected. These data highlight differences in the relative proportions of purine alkaloids in the three species of Camellia Sect. Thea. In addition, different catechins were identified and quantified. The highest content of catechin in dry leaves was (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) 3.51%, (−)-gallocatechin gallate (GCG) 9.88% and (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) 6.78% in C. sinensis, C. ptilophylla and C. assamica var. kucha, respectively.