Abstract: Tea shoots treated with different substrates viz. tyrosine, gallic acid, glutamic acid, phenylalanine and shikimic acid at different concentrations was studied. Tea shoots were incubated under in vitro conditions at varying time periods to evaluate their efficacy in biosynthesis of catechins. Among the substrates, shikimic acid followed by phenylalanine synthesised 20.34 and 19.59% of catechins, respectively. Among the clonses used, UPASI-17 recorded higher values of catechins. Irrespective of the substrates, 20 mM concentration was found to be optimum level for catechin production. Incubation period of 5 h produced maximum amount of catechins, irrespective of clone, substrate type and concentration there of.