Study On The Microbial Ecology Of Fu Tea Made By "Fungi Growing On Loose Tea" Technology And The Antibacterial Effects Of Dominant Species (Eurotium Cristatum)

Fu Brick tea is a special one in Chinese tea industry, and also is the major one in dark tea industry. It is widely used by many tea hobbyist and researchers because of its unique characteristic and outstanding quality. Also it is the necessity of some ethnic groups in China. After many years' research, Fu Brick Tea industry has been considerably developed not only in sales but also in processing technologies. This study is the first time to focus the research on microbial ecology of "Fungus Growing on Loose Tea" processes, and the antibacterial effects of Fa Hua loose tea on bacteria and fungi. The main results of this study are as follows:1. Microbial identification of Fu Brick Tea. JinXiangyi Fuzhuan Tea from 2007 and 2008 were taken as materials.The microorganisms of these samples were isolated, purified and identified. The results showed that 15 different microorganisms were identified, including 1 strain of Eurotium cristatum; 3 strains of Aspergillus niger; 1 strain of Aspergillus glaucus; 2 strains of Penicillium; 1 strain of Mucor; 3 strains of yeast and 3 strain of other Aspergillus.2. Study on the microbial number and vatieties in Fu Tea made by "Fungi Growing on Loose Tea". Using morphological methods to identify the "Golden Flower" fungi, it showed that they belonged to Fungi, Ascomycetes, Euascomycetes, Eurotiales, Eurotiaceae. "Golden Flower" fungi and Eurotium cristatum samples had strong abilities to produce acid cellulase.3. Analyzing the biochemical compositions and the antimicrobial effects of different types of Fu Tea. After Fa Hua process, the contents of biochemical compositions of these two types of Fu Tea made by different processes were lower than raw material, except the content of caffeine and organic acid. But the content of biochemical compositions of Fa Hua Loose Tea was higher than the traditional Fu Brick Tea. All of the tea samples had no antibacterial effects on fungi, but had significant effects on four common bacteria. And the raw material had the best effect.4. Incubating Eurotium cristatum in PDA and dark tea culture media respectively to get different fermentation samples of Eurotium cristatum, and analyzing the content of biochemical compositions and antimicrobial effects of these samples. The results showed that the contents of biochemical compositions in zymotic fluids were decreased after incubation, because the nutrition compounds were used by Eurotium cristatum during its fermentation process, but the content of organic acid was increased. The dark tea zymotic fluid had antibacterial effect on bacillus subtilis, and PDA zymotic fluid had antibacterial effects on four bacteria. All samples had no antibacterial effects on fungi.This paper researched the microbial ecology during "Fungi Growing on Loose Tea" processes, and compared the biochemical compositions between Fa Hua Loose Tea and traditional Fu Tea. The results from this study proved the technical feasibility and the advantages of "Fungi Growing on Loose Tea" new technology. The research results would be meaningful to develop new tea processing technologies and new Fu Tea products in the future. The study results of biochemical compositions and antibacterial effects of Eurotium cristatum and Fu Tea would be useful to further medical functions research and new functional products exploitation of Fu Tea.