## 3 Results and Discussion
### Quantitative Analysis Confirms Variations in Amino Acids, Catechins, and Caffeine
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Content (mg\(\cdot\)g\({}^{-1}\), DW)** & **GT** & **QLC** & **QDC** \\ \hline Amino Acids & & & \\ \hline Aspartic acid & 2.05 \(\pm\) 0.03 & 0.33 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.91 \(\pm\) 0.02 ** \\ Serine & 0.74 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.08 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.12 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Glutamic acid & 2.56 \(\pm\) 0.06 & 0.33 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.48 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** \\ Glycine & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.00 & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Histidine & 0.17 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.02 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Glutamine & 2.12 \(\pm\) 0.25 & 0.24 \(\pm\) 0.02 ** & 0.22 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** \\ Arginine & 0.77 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.09 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 1.76 \(\pm\) 0.22 ** \\ Threonine & 0.62 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.11 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.21 \(\pm\) 0.04 ** \\ Alanine & 0.36 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.11 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.11 \(\pm\) 0.03 ** \\ Proline & 0.71 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.07 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.24 \(\pm\) 0.04 ** \\ Theanine & 15.97 \(\pm\) 0.99 & 0.01 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & - ** \\ Cysteine & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.02 & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.01 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Tyrosine & 0.54 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.08 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.11 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** \\ Valine & 0.34 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.05 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Methionine & - & 1.40 \(\pm\) 0.05 ** & - \\ Ornithine & 0.12 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.10 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.01 * \\ Lysine & 0.39 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.08 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Isoleucine & 0.25 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.40 \(\pm\) 0.02 * & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** \\ Leucine & 0.45 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.01 ** & 0.06 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Phenylalanine & 0.42 \(\pm\) 0.01 & 0.04 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** & 0.09 \(\pm\) 0.00 ** \\ Total amino acids & 28.72 \(\pm\) 1.27 & 3.59 \(\pm\) 0.06 ** & 4.59 \(\pm\) 0.36 ** \\ \hline Catechins & & & \\ \hline Gallocatechin & 9.67 \(\pm\) 0.41 & -** & -** \\ Epigallocatechin & 14.10 \(\pm\) 0.46 & 1.37 \(\pm\) 0.03 ** & -** \\ Catechin & 3.49 \(\pm\) 0.98 & 0.77 \(\pm\) 0.05 ** & 0.34 \(\pm\) 0.08 ** \\ Epigallocatechin gallate & 57.65 \(\pm\) 3.03 & 5.18 \(\pm\) 0.55 ** & 12.84 \(\pm\) 0.47 ** \\ Epicatechin & 6.98 \(\pm\) 0.22 & 11.89 \(\pm\) 0.36 ** & 7.88 \(\pm\) 2.42 \\ Gallocatechin gallate & 18.59 \(\pm\) 0.57 & -** & -** \\ Epicatechin-3-gallate & 16.40 \(\pm\) 0.31 & -** & -** \\ Catechin gallate & 3.39 \(\pm\) 0.11 & -** & -** \\ Total catechins & 130.27 \(\pm\) 5.87 & 19.95 \(\pm\) 0.99 ** & 22.04 \(\pm\) 3.07 ** \\ \hline Caffeine & 39.67 \(\pm\) 1.67 & 0.45 \(\pm\) 0.03 ** & 4.97 \(\pm\) 0.06 ** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Note: All data were expressed as mean \(\pm\) SD. Significant differences were presented at the levels of *, \(p\) \(<\) 0.05 and **, \(p\) \(<\) 0.01.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Contents of amino acids, catechins, and caffeine in three tea samples. The caffeine concentrations in QLC and QDC were 0.45 \(\pm\) 0.03 and 4.97 \(\pm\) 0.06 mg\(\cdot\)g\({}^{-1}\), respectively, which were significantly lower than that in GT (39.67 \(\pm\) 1.67 mg\(\cdot\)g\({}^{-1}\)). All of these results were similar to those of the metabolome analysis and indicated the reliability and accuracy of the metabolomic data.