Volatile constituents of the new Japanese tea (Camellia sinensis) clonal cultivar 'Sofu', which has a characteristic aroma, were extracted by means of a simultaneous distillation extraction method and analyzed by means of gas chromatography. A peak found in 'Sofu', and not in any other tea cultivar that we analyzed, was identified as methyl anthranilate. 'Sofu' is a hybrid of 'Yabukita' (var. sinensis) and 'Shizu-Inzatsu 131', which is derived from a cross between var. assamica and var.

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... . 'Shizu-Inzatsu 131', the pollen parent of 'Sofu', also contained methyl anthranilate. Furthermore, 'Fujikaori', the hybrid of 'Shizu-Inzatsu 131' crossed with 'Yabukita' as the pollen parent, contained methyl anthranilate. 'Shizu-Inzatsu 131' was selected from a natural cross population of the clonal strain introduced from Assam. These suggest that the origin of tea which contains methyl anthranilate is in var. assamica. This is the first report of methyl anthranilate in Japanese cultivars or native varieties.