γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) tea is a popular tea with high GABA content (>1.5 mg/g). In this study, the influence of anaerobic treatment, which is a key manufacturing process for GABA tea, was investigated by a nontargeted metabolomics method combining with targeted compounds quantifications. The results showed that the anaerobic treatment not only led to a ∼16-fold increase in GABA content but also caused significant changes in the levels of TCA cycle metabolites, dimeric flavanols, lipids, bases/nucleosides, and most of amino acids (p < 0.05). The levels of alkaloids, flavanols, and flavonol/flavone glycosides were slightly fluctuated. After the removal of anoxic conditions, the GABA content remained stable, while dimeric flavanols, flavanols, aroma glycosides, and most of amino acids varied. This study provides a comprehensive characterization of GABA tea processing in a view of dynamic metabolome and offers a theoretical basis for quality control of GABA tea processing.

γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）茶是一种受欢迎的茶，其GABA含量高（> 1.5 mg / g）。在这项研究中，通过非目标代谢组学方法结合目标化合物的定量研究了厌氧处理的影响，这是GABA茶的关键生产工艺。结果表明，厌氧处理不仅导致GABA含量增加约16倍，而且还导致TCA循环代谢产物，二聚体黄烷醇，脂质，碱基/核苷和大多数氨基酸（p <0.05）。生物碱，黄烷醇和黄酮醇/黄酮糖苷的含量略有波动。去除缺氧条件后，GABA含量保持稳定，而二聚体黄烷醇，黄烷醇，香气苷和大多数氨基酸变化。这项研究从动态代谢组的角度提供了GABA茶加工的全面表征，并为GABA茶加工的质量控制提供了理论基础。