This technology involves the Penicillium citrinum 091 strain (KACC 93132P), isolated from microbial fermented tea made with Boseong small-leaf tea leaves, and a method for producing fermented tea by using this strain as a biocatalyst to ferment tea leaves or raw tea. Tea fermented with this strain exhibits enhanced anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and fatty liver inhibitory properties compared to the raw tea leaves.
As domestic tea cultivation areas and production volumes have rapidly increased, there has been a significant drop in the price of autumn/winter tea and surplus green tea, which often lack flavor. Microbial fermented teas like Pu-erh are typically made from large-leaf varieties using a wet-piling fermentation method, which relies on the intuition of skilled workers to control temperature and humidity for tons of raw tea. This makes it difficult to maintain consistent quality and impossible to produce in small batches.
This technology involves selecting and identifying the Penicillium citrinum PC091 strain, which shows the highest functional enhancement capability across various fermentation stages, and incorporating it as a composition for fermented tea production in the form of the strain itself, its culture, or a concentrate. The fermented tea extract can be used as a food composition for improving metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity, as well as fatty liver. It can be applied to domestic small-leaf post-fermented tea, blood sugar management tea beverages, and metabolic health functional foods, allowing low-value autumn/winter tea and surplus green tea to be transformed into high-value fermented tea with blood sugar and fat management benefits.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for the development of manufacturing technology for Korean microbially fermented tea.
N/A
