Chemosystematics of tea trees based on tea leaf polyphenols as phenetic markers

PCA demonstrated that the amount of EGCG (1) and EGC (2) (alternatively, ECG (3) and EC (4)) is the most effective polyphenol pattern to study tea chemosystematics; the greater the 1 and 2 (the lower the 3 and 4) content, the more recent the origin of the line. Based on morphological characteristics (large and small leaved), the historical information on tea trees, and our findings from the statistical data, we support the notion that Puer City and the Xishuangbanna district are among the original sites of tea tree species.