Tea is one of the most popular beverages consumed in the world, due to its high content in polyphenols with a broad bioactivity spectrum, e.g., antimicrobial, anti-mutagenesis, anti- oxidative, anti-tumor, and so on. It is generally manufactured from the fresh leaves of two widely cultivated tea plants, Camellia sinensis L. O. Kuntze and C. sinensis var. assamica (Masters) Kitamura (Theaceae), both belonging to the genus Camellia section Thea. Among which, another 11 wild tea species and five varieties are also included, according to Min's taxonomic system. All the species in the genus Camellia section Thea are distributed in China. Among them, eight species and four varieties are growing in Yunnan province. And most of them, known as wild tea plants, have been used for making tea and consumed by the local people of its growing areas. The leaves of several wild tea plants, e.g., Camellia taliensis, C. crassicolumna var. crassicolumna, C. fangchengensis, C. sinensis var. pubilimba, and C. pachyandra were chemically studied and compared with the widely cultivated tea plants. Several new flavan-3-ol dimers and other derivatives were identified, in addition to a series of known phenolic compounds and caffeine. Most of the isolates were evaluated for their acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory effects and antioxidant activity by DPPH, ABTS+, and tyrosinase inhibitory assays. The results suggested that the studied wild tea plants could be valuable plant resources for the production of tea and natural beverages.

Plant resources, chemistry and bioactivities of several wild tea plants in China

256th National Meeting (2018)

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