Abstract: The variation of important functional composition in the tea seeds, including the oil content, fatty acid composition of tea seeds oil, the content of vitamin E and squalene in tea seeds oil were studied by GC and HPLC on its maturation period. The tea seed samples come from 4 tea germplasms: Fuding dabaicha, Fuyun No.6, Huangdan and Rougui. The results showed that, the nutrients accumulated, the moisture content decreased and the oil content increased on the tea seed maturation process. The oil content increased more rapid at the earlier maturation stage, then slowed down at the later stage and reached a maximum value, the average seed oil content of these 4 germplasm was 24.24%. The vitamin E content in the tea seeds oil increased by the ‘dual wave peak’ pattern, and then increased fast at later stage to a maximum value, the vitamin E content of Fuyun 6 reached 1β060.29βμg/g. The squalene content of tea seeds oil increased at earlier maturation stage, decreased at later stage, the Rougui’s squalene content was 161.42 μg/g. The palmitic acid relative content in tea seeds oil decreased slowly, and the relative content of stearic acid in tea seeds oil increased slowly on the tea seeds maturation. The oleinic acid relative content in tea seeds oil increased firstly, decreased at medium stage, and then increased continually to the end. The oleinic acid relative content in matured tea seeds oil of Fuding dabaicha, Fuyun No. 6, Huangdan and Rougui was 50.43%、45.98%、52.62% and 52.98% respectively. The linoleic acid relative content in tea seeds oil decreased firstly, increased at medium stage, and then decreased continuing to the end. The linoleic acid relative content in matured tea seeds oil of Fuding dabaicha, Fuyun No.6, Huangdan and Rougui was 31.65%、27.36%、24.66% and 24.07% respectively.

Key words: tea seeds, GC, HPLC, oil, vitamin E(α-tocopherol), squalene, fatty acid composition