安化黑茶的神奇“金花”

The Magical ‘Golden Flowers’in Anhua Dark Tea

文  /  周正平

Written by Zhou Zhengping

翻译 / 王俊懿　姚妤

Translated by Wang Junyi,Yao Yu

“金花”，是在安化黑茶中最先发现并引起专家学者研究的益生菌，很长一段时间中被认为只有安化黑茶的茯砖茶中才有“金花”，而且只有在安化这样的特殊环境中才可能生长。它是神奇的，也是神秘的。随着安化黑茶的保健功效日益被人们认可，随着专家学者的研究日益深入，它也越来越被人们所认识所推崇。

The "golden flowers" (Eurotium Cristatum) which was studied and researched by the reaserchers and scholars was a kind of probiotics first discoverd in Anhua Dark tea.It is believed for a long time that fungi flowers only grow in the Fu Brick Tea of Anhua Dark Tea. And such advanced environment of Anhua County is essential for its growing. That is magical and mysterious.With the rising awareness of the beneficial function to health care of people,and the more detailed reasearch of the reaserchers and scholars,Anhua Dark tea is well recognized and promoted by more and more people.

“金花”，实质上是安化黑茶茯砖茶加工过程中，在特定的温、湿度条件下，通过“发花”工艺长成的一种有着多种保健功能的益生菌，其产生的黄色闭囊壳似细小花斑，均匀地附着在茯砖茶中，俗称“金花”，也有人叫“黄花”。西北边区消费者历来根据“金花”的质量和数量来判断茯砖茶品质的优劣。人们通常从三个方面评价“金花”：颜色、分布与数量。“金花鲜艳”指的是刚发出的金花一般呈黄绿色，存放一段时间后颜色转向金黄；“金花普茂”指的是金花遍布砖体内各处，单位面积内金花数量较多。

The "golden flowers" is a kind of probiotics with varied maintaining health functions which grows in its "fermentation" process in particular wet and temperature conditions through the procedure of "mouldy spot appearing ".Its yellow cleistothecium structure of the microorganism attached to the Fu Brick evenly,so called "golden flowers" or "yellow flowers".The consumers in Northwest regions formally judge that how well the quality of Fu Brick is by the quantity and quality of the "golden flowers".They evaluate it in three aspects:the color,the distribution,the quantity."Colorful fungi flowers" referred to the turn of the color from its beginning-yellow green-to its ending -golden after storage for some time."Fully flourished fungi flowers" referred to the evenly distribution amid the brick and its high density of the golden flowers .

20世纪50年代，学者们开始研究探讨茯砖茶中的“金花”或“黄花”的属性。当时对这种物质知之甚少，只知其在茯砖茶中的含量越高，茶的品质就越好。80年代初，科研人员对茯砖茶中的优势菌进行了分离鉴定，初步认为是谢瓦氏曲霉。但著名专家温琼英教授认为，谢瓦氏曲霉的子囊孢子表面是光滑的，而“金花”菌的子囊孢子表面明显粗糙，温教授与中国科学院微生物研究所共同将该菌鉴定为灰绿曲霉组冠突曲霉科。1990年，微生物学家齐祖同等进一步研究后，将其命名为冠突散囊菌。此后，多数文献均将“金花”称为“冠突散囊菌”。

In the 50th of the twenty century,scholars started to investigate and do reasearch on the nature of the "golden flowers" or the "yellow flowers".They are ill-informed of the substance then,only believe the fact that the higher the containing quantity is,the better its quality would be.In the early 80th,the researchers experimented by separating and identifying its predominant bacteria as the "Aspergillus chevalieri".While the famous specialist Professor Wen Qiongying argured that its ascospore surface should be smooth,but the discovery of rough surface of the ascopore of the fungi flowers has made both Wen and the workers in the Institute of Microbiology,Chinese Academy of Sciences identify the germs as "Aspergillus oryzae in Aspergillus oryzae".By the 1900s, after further research, microbiologist Qi Zutong defined it as "Eurotium Cristatum".  Afterwards in most documents, this peculiar fungus was termed as "Eurotium Cristatum".

“金花”具有特殊的保健功效，无毒副作用。由于“金花”即冠突散囊菌的存在，使得茯砖茶具有了不同于其他茶类的色、香、味，并且促消化、降脂减肥、治疗心血管疾病等保健功效更为突出。湖南农业大学王冰等研究总结了冠突散囊菌五个方面的功效。一是改善茶叶的品质。冠突散囊菌利用从茶叶中获取的营养物质进行自身代谢转化，满足自身的营养需要，同时产生多酚氧化酶、果胶酶、纤维素酶、蛋白酶等胞外酶，催化茶叶中物质的氧化、聚合、降解、转化，达到茯砖茶特有的色、香、味。二是抗氧化作用。冠突散囊菌吸收茯砖茶中的茶多酚后分泌生产了3种生物活性更强的成分，即糖苷化、硫酸化及甲基化等儿茶素的衍生物，具有消除自由基的能力。三是抵制有害菌。冠突散囊菌在生长过程中产生不利于其他微生物存在的代谢产物，抵制有害菌的生长。四是提高酶的活性。冠突散囊菌能提高淀粉酶、蛋白酶的活性，同时可以抵制脂肪酶的活性。五是调节维持肠道微生物菌群平衡。虽然冠突散囊菌的成分尚未测知，但真菌壁所含的几丁质、几丁质聚糖是一类特殊的膳食纤维，能促进肠道中的梭菌属XIVa簇形成，减轻高脂肥胖。

The "golden flowers" has special beneficial function in health care,it is non-toxic and has no side effects.Due to the existence of the "fungi flowers",the liquor of Fu brick has a different color,fragrance and taste.It also has a more significant effect of promoting digestion,reducing blood fat and weight loss, additionally aid in healing angiocardiopathy.Wang Bing,the worker in Hunan Agricultural University summarized and drew five conclusions to their effects in different aspects.First,it helps to improve the quality of tea leaves.The fungus make use of the nutrients from the tea leaves to meet the nutrient demands for itself through the process of metabolic transformation,meanwhile produce a variety of eco_enzymes，catalyzing the substances contained in the tea leaves to form its unique color，fragrance and taste  through the process of oxidizing, aggregating, degradating and transforming.Second,its anti-oxidation funtion.The fungus absorb the containing tea polyphenols,then secrete and produce three biological activated chemicals,namely,the derivatives of catechuic acid,which are radical scavenger.The third,it could resist harmful bacteria.The germs could restrain the harmful bacteria from growing by producing some products for metabolism which prohibit other micro-organisms during their growing process.Fourth,it could enhance the activity of the enzymes. It would enhance the activity of amylase and protease,while restrain the activity of lipase.Fifth,it regulates the balance of intestinal microflora.Although the ingredients of the fungi flowers is not yet known,but the chitin chemical in fungal wall is one special kind of dietary fibers which is promoting the formation of Clostridium XIVa clusters in the intestinal tract ,thus helping reduce fat.

关于“金花”毒理性研究。我国自上世纪60年代起，就开展了黑茶品质化学成分方面的研究，并于80年代中期建立了“茯砖茶”、“黑砖茶”和“花砖茶”的国家标准。国标的建立对于保障茶叶生产的安全性具有积极的作用。金花菌在外观上很象黄曲霉，在早期研究中曾有人把金花菌误认为黄曲霉，给人们心理上造成了紧张和恐慌，因而开展对茯砖茶中微生物的毒理性研究显得尤为迫切。1987年湖南农学院张海荪等做了茯砖茶发花的安全性实验，取茶汁饲喂小白鼠，结果并不引起小白鼠发病，也不引起肝细胞中毒，说明茯砖茶对人体是安全的。肖文军等研究了速溶茯砖茶对小鼠与大鼠的毒理特性，表明茯砖茶对雌雄大鼠无明显毒副作用，属实际无毒物。1994年王志刚用卤虫生物法对冠突散囊菌进行毒性实验，在蔗糖酵母浸汁培养基上培养，结果10株冠突散囊菌菌体提取物均未发现明显产毒，从而进一步证实了冠突散囊菌无毒。

Researches on the toxicity of the "golden flowers".China has done some researches on the chemical constituent components which influenced the quality of dark tea since 1960s,and took further steps to set up the national standards for "Fu brick tea","Dark brick tea","Flower brick tea".That is good for the guarantee of the tea’s production.In the early days,some workmates wrongly defined fungi flowers as Aspergillus flavus,which caused a lot of truouble and an uneased panic,then it could not be more urgent for the toxicological study of the germs in Fu brick tea.Such an experiment on the safety of the fermentation in Fu brick was done by Sun Haisun in Hunan Agricultural College.He found that there was no phenomenon of morbidity and hepatocytosis after feeding mice with tea juice.Thus proving that Fu brick tea juice was safe for human consumption.Another workmate Xiaowenjun studied the links between the toxicity of instant Fu brick tea soup and the health of the small or big mice,actually showing that the tea soup had no side effects or toxity(nontoxic substance).What’s more,Wangzhigang carried out the experiment of toxicity of the fungi flowers with the Artemia biological method,he found that the extractive of ten germs mycelium were nontoxic,further confirming evidence to the fact that golden flowers were safe.

鉴于“金花”的功能特性，开展对其开发利用的研究，对改善安化黑茶的品质、深加工工艺及保健药物的开发具有重要意义。而且人们还发现，冠突散囊菌并不是茯砖茶特有的，传统的安化千两茶在存放过程中也会自行生长出“金花”，行业内称为“自然发花”。研究还表明，在康砖和青砖茶中也可分离到冠突散囊菌。这些现象和研究发现启发了生产与科研者，是否能通过移植、培养等“人工发花”办法，在其他种类茶中培育出“金花”？目前这一研究已取得重要进展，安化黑茶神奇的“金花”，完全有可能在多种黑茶上盛开，放射出更加绚丽夺目的光芒！

It is of great value and meaning to carry out our study on its development and utilization,to improve the quality of Anhua Dark tea,to develop the health care medicine and further processing crafts because of the unique property and function of fungi flowers.Further more,it was discovered that the golden flowers not only exist in the Fu brick tea,but also in Qianliang tea.This process of fermentation is called "Natual fermentation" in such a case when the Qianliang tea is in storage.At last,it indicates that we could separate the germs from the Kang brick and Qing brick tea.All above enlightened the producers and researchers on how to transplant or culture the golden flowers in other kinds of tea catagories through the so-called "artificial fermentation",but the goal is not yet met.Much progress has made,and it is truely believed that the magical golden flowers would nourish and blossom in many different kinds of dark tea catagories,shining its dazzling delight!

原载《安化黑茶》杂志2014年第1期创刊号

Source: First issue of  "Magazine of Anhua Dark Tea" in 2014