NUTRIENT COMPOSITION IN LEAVES OF CULTIVATED AND WILD CAMELLIA NITIDISSIMA

Abstract

Camellia nitidissima is widely used to make tea in south China. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of cultivation on the nutrients of C. nitidissima. In this paper, we make comparative analyses of the nutrient content in leaves in cultivated and wild C. nitidissima. The results indicate that both cultivated and wild C. nitidissima had a full complement of amino acids with rich contents and a variety of mineral nutrients. There were no significant differences between cultivated and wild C. nitidissima in terms of water, vitamin C, gross sugar, protein, fat, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium or zinc content, but cultivated C. nitidissima had significantly higher contents of essential amino acids (26.05% ) and total amino acids (33.27%) than that of wild C. nitidissima.