Organic Farming Practice for Quality Improvement of Tea and Its Anti Parkinsonism Effect on Health Defense

Ananya Bagchi, Bijoy Chandr

Abstract

Tea is an important beverage consumed worldwide. It is a source of important secondary metabolites like catechins monoterpenoids, carotenoids etc. Catechins are responsible for the beneficial health effects of tea. Over the decades conventional tea cultivation practice using synthetic fertilizer and pesticides has jeopardize the soil health particularly due to micronutrient deficiency, instability in yield and reduced product quality. Such threat has led to emergence of organic farming practice for improvement of crop yield and product quality that finally has an impact on human health defence. Field experiments conducted using organic farming practice has shown improved soil health by improving availability of micronutrients which in terms improved crop yield and quality of tea. The content of secondary phenolics compounds like total phenolics, GCG, EGCC, ECG was higher in when tea grown organically. Antioxidant property of tea extract from different farming practice was studied by DPPH method resulting higher radical scavenging capacity than tea grown conventionally. From the pharmacological study the organic tea extract has shown better control of Parkinsonism in two different animal model experiments. Organic tea extract exhibited better performance in reduction of Superoxide dismutase and catalase activity in brain in Parkinson’s disease induced in test mice model than the tea extract obtained from conventional farming practice. The value of SOD and catalase activity in MPTP induced mice model given tea extract grown in control, conventional farming, vermicompost and vermicompost+vermiwash treatment are respectively 1.31 ± 0.16c, 1.8 ± 0.16d, 0.95 ± 0.14e, 0.79 ± 0.06; and 0.98 ± 0.07c, 1.10 ± 0.07d, 0.78 ± 0.07e, 0.69 ± 0.05a for Tv 25 variety. Similar result is obtained for Tv1 variety also.The present study generated information on soil, crop performance, yield and quality of tea related to health defense, which should be regarded as valuable information for a perennial crop like tea.