This study investigated the therapeutic effects on metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the impact on the intestinal barrier and gut microbiota of Fu brick tea aqueous extracts (FTE) on MetS in rats fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). Here, the results showed that FTE supplement significantly reduced HFD-induced weight gain, adiposity, dyslipidemia, fasting blood glucose (FBG) increment, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Moreover, FTE supplement resulted in a decline in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level and attenuation of colonic inflammation and oxidative stress to protect the intestinal barrier function. FTE supplement also maintained the intestinal barrier integrity by improving histological appearance and promoting ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1 protein expression levels. Meanwhile, FTE supplement alleviated the gut microbiota dysbiosis by enhancing the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio and stimulating the colonization of probiotic bacteria such as Akkermansia, Lactobacillus, Adlercreutzia, and Bacteroides. These findings collectively suggest that Fu brick tea could alleviate MetS and MetS-associated traits with the mechanism relevant to the protection of intestinal barrier and gut microbiota regulation.

In this study, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC-Q-TOF-MS) were used for the qualitative and quantitative determination of volatile components in dark tea samples, and the characteristic volatile components of jasmine dark tea were identified by multivariate statistical analysis and their regulatory effects on tea aroma were investigated. The results showed that the scenting process could coordinate the aroma characteristics of dark tea (such as aged, woody and smoky pine aroma), and endow dark tea with the aroma of jasmine, contributing to the aroma quality of jasmine dark tea that is defined as “fresh flowery fragrance, and pure tea-like fragrance”. A total of 366 volatile components were identified in dark tea and jasmine dark tea, of which 38 volatile components such as linalool, α-farnesene, and benzyl acetate were characteristic volatile components to distinguish the aroma quality of dark tea before and after scenting, and most characteristic volatile components were positively correlated with jasmine and fungus fragrance, and negatively correlated with aged woody and smoky pine aroma. These findings led us to conclude that scenting is important for improving the quality of jasmine dark tea. This study provides a theoretical basis for improving the processing technology and quality and regulating the aroma of jasmine dark tea.

Tea is a kind of beverage with unique flavor made from fresh tea leaves by special processing technology. Fixation, fermentation, green-making, pile-fermentation, withering and yellowing are the key processing technologies for making Chinese green tea, black tea, oolong tea, dark tea, white tea and yellow tea, respectively. The key processing technology of tea affects the key volatile and non-volatile components of tea through enzymatic reaction, microbial action, wet and hot action, which then affects the tea flavor. Compared with the tea type, more attention needs to be given to the comprehensive effect of content and proportion of the key flavor substances on the tea flavor. The research on the key flavor substances of tea provides theoretical support for the digital and intelligent processing of tea.

Science and technology are the key productive forces to promote the development of intelligent agriculture. The tea industry is a specialty industry in China’s agricultural field. The current status of this industry is characterized by varying scale and uneven development among tea enterprises. With the development of intelligent agriculture, in order to further explore a scientific path for the development of the tea industry, digital technology represented by big data, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence has been applied to tea planting, processing, sale and traceability, which has promoted the intelligent development of the tea industry to a certain extent. This paper focuses on the application of IoT in tea planting and the processing of six kinds of tea and scented tea. Finally, the problems existing in the application of IoT in the tea industry are discussed, which provides a reference for the subsequent integration of IoT technologies into the tea industry.

Obesity is associated with gut dysbiosis and metabolic endotoxin. Junshanyinzhen tea extract (JSTE) reduced fat accumulation and body weight in obese mice. However, the effects and mechanism of JSTE in preventing obesity were unclear. Therefore, we used different doses of JSTE (75, 150 and 300 mg/(kg·day)) to evaluate the effect on high-fat diet (HFD) -induced rats under 8 weeks of intervention. Here, our results showed that JSTE could significantly reduce body weight gain, blood lipid levels and fat accumulation, improve fatty damage in liver tissue (P < 0.05). In addition, JSTE increased the expression of intestinal tight junction proteins (P < 0.05), relieved metabolic endotoxemia (P < 0.05) and chronic low- grade inflammation in HFD rats. Sequencing of fecal samples showed that JSTE could effectively reverse the microbial diversity and the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes to normal levels in HFD- fed rats. Desulfovibrioceae and Erysipelotrichaceae, which are positively related to obesity, were decreased by JSTE intervention (P < 0.05). while Bifidobacteriaceae, Bacteroidaceae, Akkermansia, and Clostridium, which are negatively related to obesity, were increased. Together, these results suggested that JSTE might effectively prevent obesity by modulating gut microbiota dysbiosis, intestinal barrier dysfunction, metabolic endotoxemia and chronic low-grade inflammation in HFD-induced rats.