Yadav , S K and Ahuja, Paramvir Singh (2007) Towards generating caffeine-free tea by metabolic engineering. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition , 62 (4). pp. 185-191. ISSN 0921-9668

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Abstract

Tea is a rich source of antioxidants which are contributing substantially to the promotion of health and the prevention of various chronic diseases. Despite the fact that tea has various important compounds, it also contains a purine alkaloid, caffeine. High intake of tea leads to an increase in level of caffeine in addition to its important antioxidant constituents. Increased level of caffeine causes several health related problems. Therefore, tea can become a most useful source of beneficial compounds, if only its caffeine level is either decreased or eliminated all together from the plant itself. This could be achieved through either of the techniques; overexpressing caffeine degradative pathway genes or silencing caffeine biosynthesis pathway gene. The identification and cloning of caffeine biosynthesis in tea and degradative genes in microorganisms opens up the possibility of using genetic engineering to produce naturally decaffeinated tea. Here we review these different strategies which can be employed to make caffeine-free tea, a human health beneficial drink.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Antisense; Caffeine; Metabolic Engineering; Rna Interference; Tea
Subjects:	Natural Product Chemistry
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Dr. Aparna Maitra Pati
Date Deposited:	29 Dec 2011 04:38
Last Modified:	29 Dec 2011 04:38
URI:	http://ihbt.csircentral.net/id/eprint/87

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