Wild Taiwanese tea plants populating Nantou County’s Fonghuang Mountain (or Phoenix Mountain, 鳳凰山) are rich in catechins, a research institution said on Thursday, urging the government to designate the site as a conservation area to better protect the species.
The leaf of the Camellia formosensis, or wild Taiwanese tea, resembles that of Assam tea and belongs to the large-leaf variety, the National Taiwan University Experimental Forest Administration said.
The plant is mainly found in mountainous areas with a low-to-medium altitude of 700m to 1,650m in central and southern Taiwan, especially in Nantou County’s Renai (仁愛), Sinyi (信義) and Lugu (鹿谷) townships, as well as on Yongkang Mountain (永康山) in Taitung County’s Yanping Township (延平), it said.
Photo courtesy of the National Taiwan University Experimental Forest Administration
Taiwanese tea is high in tea polyphenol and caffeine content, producing a beverage that has a mellow and mature flavor, while its dried tea leaves smell like mulberry, it said.
Given the lack of research on this tea species, the National Taiwan University Experimental Forest Administration conducted a study on the catechin and caffeine content of different populations of wild Taiwanese tea trees in central Taiwan, with the goal of informing future selection of elite single plants and resource conservation.
Researchers collected samples from Renai’s Meiyuan Mountain (眉原山), Lugu’s Fonghuang Mountain and Jhanghu Mountain (樟湖山), and Sinyi’s Shuanglong Village (雙龍).
The study found that Taiwanese tea samples from Fonghuang Mountain have the highest content of total catechins of 103.70mg/g, with epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin and gallocatechol as the primary catechins, it said.
Their EGCG, which is believed to have the greatest antioxidant effect among the three catechins, ranked the highest at an average of 62.23mg/g, it said.
As for caffeine, samples from the Jhanghu Mountain ranked the highest, while those from Shuanglong Village were the lowest, at an average of 25.68mg/g, it said.
However, few Taiwanese tea trees are left in the wild, as many of the populations in different regions are facing threats from human interference, it said.
The institution is dedicated to protecting the germplasm of Taiwanese tea via asexual reproduction, as well as building a complete gene pool to ensure the conservation of the plant species’ genetic diversity, it said.
A conservation area should be established to protect wild Taiwanese tea trees, with monitoring and patrols strengthened to reduce human interference and ensure the growth of the wild populations, it said.
Responsible agencies should also formulate a policy to help develop the Taiwanese tea industry, as the plant has a promising market potential, but requires more efforts from the government to help promote, advise and regulate management, it added.
A complete industry chain, from planting to processing and marketing, should be established to better meet future market needs, it said.
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