The theme of the 5th column from Asian Beauty Lab is green tea, one of Amorepacific's heritage ingredients. In this column, we will discuss Jeju green tea from the best natural environment and our research on green tea beauty products. At the same time, we will introduce dynamic research on new varieties of green tea that have been specially designed for use in skin treatments, as well as various beneficial parts of tea plant. In writing this column, we received much help from Hwang Kyeonghwan of Heritage Material Research Team, who is in charge of green tea research.

Suh Sungwhan, the founder of Amorepacific, always regretted that Korea's proud tea tradition disappeared at some point after its one thousand year of history. His determination to revive Korea's unique tea culture started the beautiful devotion of Amorepacific for green tea. Green tea now ranks alongside ginseng and soybean as one of the key heritage ingredients of Amorepacific.

Jeju Island is an optimum tea field with an average annual temperature over 14°C, a slightly acidic soil of pH 4.0–5.0, and a hot, humid climate with annual precipitation of more than 1,600mm. So, it's natural that Amorepacific and Jeju started to make a relationship for green tea cultivation.

However, it was barren land with only stones and wind. The first cultivated area, Dosun, didn't have much soil and was inappropriate for farming as a part of Dorisotdang, which was regarded one of the three most remote areas of Jeju. The land was about 82,644 square meters large when cultivation started. We removed stones one by one using our hands, shovels and excavators, rather than any special earthmoving equipment. After much arduous effort, the stony land was reborn as a thick green tea field and we now own the precious assets of Dolsongi, Seogwang, and Hannam Tea Fields, which are 3.3 million square meters large.

Then shall we talk some more about green tea and Jeju?

The two most important factors in tea plant cultivation are soil and climate. First, physicochemical properties of soil result in a great difference in tea quality, as well as tea cultivation. Tea plants grow best in slightly acidic soil with a pH of between pH 4.0–5.0 in areas with good drainage, rather than in soils of pH 6.0–7.0., which are better suited for other agricultural plants. In general, earth soil can be classified into 12 types, as shown below. Andisols, the dominant soil type of Jeju, has optimal properties for the cultivation of tea plants.

Meanwhile, the optimum climate for tea plant cultivation is an area with an average annual temperature between 14–16°C and annual precipitation of more than 1,600mm. If average annual temperature is above 16°C, the amount of produce will be larger, but plants get heat stress, which means that quality drops and leaves get burnt. If the temperature is too low, cold-weather damage will dry leaves or ruin primary leaves to undermine tea production. Considering this, the Seogwipo of Jeju is the best place for tea plant cultivation and Amorepacific's tea fields.

So what do you think? Don't you feel like our green tea from Jeju is somewhat more special?

In 1989, Amorepacific launched "AMORE Miro," its first beauty product whose main ingredient was green tea, and initiated green tea research. Research into green tea as an ingredient for beauty products consists of four major areas: research on the anti-oxidant properties and anti-aging efficacy of green tea, including EGCG, a typical catechin, and theanine, a unique amino acid, research on new varieties of tea plants filled with high levels of rare catechin (3"Me-EGCG), which shows an excellent anti-oxidant and anti-aging effect, research on utilizing various parts of plants other than leaves like flowers, seeds and roots for beauty products, and finally green tea processing research including fermentation. Amorepacific has become a global leader in the research of green tea application for beauty products.

The value of green tea ingredients from our research is now shared with global customers through products of AMOREPACIFIC, innisfree, Mamonde, Ryo and other brands. Now we will walk you through our recent, active research on new variety and different parts of tea plants for beauty products.

Since 2002, OSULLOC Farm and Amorepacific have invested in research of new varieties of tea plants dedicated to functional purposes. For a long time, tea industry focused on tea's palatability (taste) in terms of cultivation, varieties, product and application. Recently, as the efficacy of green tea became known, some products with green tea ingredient were introduced to market, but only within a limited scope, not fully utilizing the differentiated functionality.

We started to tackle the new challenge of developing new varieties of tea plant that had great efficacy for skin as well as good quality for green tea. We apparently faced a lot of difficulties in the beginning since it was very first research in the area and no other global beauty company tried before. Time was the biggest problem in developing a good, new variety of tea plant.

Unlike general annuals, perennial tea plants need tens of years (14–24 years) to be fully grown. Therefore, only Amorepacific, that owns and cultivates tea fields, could try to research tea plants for such a long time for the purpose of developing a new variety of tea plants. From the research of many years, we could identify morphological and genetic differences and various components among diverse varieties of tea plants.

After hybridization of about 8,500 varieties and 228,000 experiments, Amorepacific developed 5 new varieties which contain high levels of beneficial components including the catechin 3"Me-EGCG (a rare catechin that only a minute amount can be found in special varieties), theanine, lutein and beta-carotene. For 3"Me-EGCG, which has an excellent anti-aging effect by expediting the removal of dead skin cells and the expression of longevity genes, we gave the name of "Absoluchin 228K™." We also named a new variety containing the component "AbsoluTea™ (Variety Name: Jangwon No.3)." This variety is developed only for the skin, and is currently being used for skincare products like AMOREPACIFIC Prime Reserve Epidynamic Activating Creme.

As described, we have led the variety development of tea plants enriched with great skincare benefits and other unknown efficacies. Our research will continue in the future.

People usually think tea leaves are the only ingredient from tea plants to be used in beauty products. But, we broadened the research scope to various parts of tea plants, beyond tea leaves, to identify new components that benefit the skin.

First, we studied tea plant flowers. The flowers were regarded as a symbol of "humility" in Korea, since its simple, innocent shape looked like someone bowing shyly. Buddhist monks preserved the flowers with salt in autumn and put them in tea during winter.

From our research, we confirmed that tea plant flowers not only have a great anti-inflammatory effect, but also excellent boosting power for EGCG, the typical anti-oxidant found in green tea. That is, EGCG's excellent efficacy for biosynthesis of collagen in the skin can be increased when treated with tea plant flower extract. The flower extract has been developed into an ingredient for use in beauty products and is now used for AMOREPACIFIC Time Response Serum.

The second ingredient is tea plant seeds. Like the flowers, only small amount of the seeds can be harvested once a year (in autumn) from more than 5-to 10-year-old tea plants. They contain a rich amount of botanical oil that is particularly beneficial for skin. We selectively extracted tea plant oil and applied to facial oil products.

Tea plant seeds contain many great nutrients. Vitamin E with anti-oxidant power protects the skin from strong UV ray and external stress. Oleic acid, linoleic acid and other unsaturated fatty acids make dry, rough skin nice and smooth, supporting the function of the skin barrier to keep skin well moisturized for a long time. In other words, green tea seeds are excellent ingredients for skincare, particularly when the seasons change with strong UV rays and dry air like nowadays.

The last ingredient we want to present is tea plant roots. Tea plants have tap roots which tend to grow deep (2–4m) in the ground, which makes them difficult to transplant. Such characteristics are why brides used to take teas for a dowry in the past as a symbol of her love to love the groom all her life. A mother-in-law also used to give tea plant seeds to a bride as a present, as a symbol of her request to maintain marital fidelity and make the family proud.

After extensive research on how to utilize tea plant roots for beauty products, we discovered that the roots actually contained a high level of green tea saponin, which is different from ginseng saponin, and makes a perfect ingredient for anti-aging skincare products. When tea plants were replanted every 30–40 years, we could take the roots for research on its components and efficacy. From research, we identified 10 new types of saponin with a protective effect on collagen similar to retinol and a suppressive effect on melanin production similar to arbutin. The research was applied to the development of AMOREPACIFIC Time Response Skin Renewal Sleeping Masque.

As explained, roots are the last present for us from tea plants that we have cultivated for more than 30 years.

We introduced the history of Amorepacific's green tea cultivation along with a new development variety. We presented cases of Asian beauty product development enabled by green tea research that only we could have done. We will continue to develop proprietary green tea beauty products that can best work for customers' beautiful and healthy life, through the research on new varieties and skin benefits including anti-aging, moisturizing and brightening. Your interest and encouragement will be a huge support for our effort.