State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources of West China, Kunming Institute of Botany , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Kunming , Yunnan 650201 , People's Republic of China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , People's Republic of China.
J Agric Food Chem. 2019 May 15;67(19):5318-5349. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.8b05037. Epub 2018 Dec 3.
Tea, as one of the most popular beverages with various bioactivities, is commonly produced from the fresh leaves of two widely cultivated tea plants, Camellia sinensis and C. sinensis var. assamica. Both plants belong to the genus Camellia section Thea, which was considered to have 12 species and 6 varieties according to Min's taxonomic system. Most species, except the cultivated species, are known as wild tea plants and have been exploited and utilized to produce tea by the local people of its growing areas. Thus far, six species and varieties have been phytochemically studied, leading to the identification of 398 compounds, including hydrolyzable tannins, flavan-3-ols, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, and other phenolic and related compounds. Various beneficial health effects were reported for tea and its components, involving antioxidant, antitumor, antimutagenic, antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, etc. In this review, the geographical distribution of tea plants and the chemical constituents (1-398) reported from the genus Camellia section Thea and some tea products (green, black, oolong, and pu-erh tea) that have ever been studied between 1970 and 2018 have been summarized, taking species as the main hint, and the main biological activities are also discussed.
茶是一种具有多种生物活性的最受欢迎的饮料之一，通常由两种广泛种植的茶树——茶树（Camellia sinensis）和黑茶茶树（C. sinensis var. assamica）的新鲜叶子制成。这两种植物都属于山茶属茶组，根据 Min 的分类系统，该属被认为有 12 个种和 6 个变种。除了栽培种外，大多数种都被称为野生茶树，其生长地区的当地人已经对其进行了开发和利用，用于生产茶叶。迄今为止，已经对其中的 6 个种和变种进行了植物化学研究，共鉴定出 398 种化合物，包括可水解单宁、黄烷-3-醇、类黄酮、萜类、生物碱和其他酚类及相关化合物。研究表明，茶及其成分具有多种有益的健康作用，包括抗氧化、抗肿瘤、抗突变、抗糖尿病、降血脂、抗炎、抗菌、抗病毒、抗真菌、神经保护、保肝等。在本文中，总结了茶组山茶属植物的地理分布和 1970 年至 2018 年间报道的化学成分（1-398），以及一些曾经研究过的茶产品（绿茶、红茶、乌龙茶和普洱茶），以种为主要线索，并讨论了它们的主要生物活性。
