[Objective] This study aimed to analyze the difference in the contents of gallic acid and catechins of tea resources from Yunnan Province. [Method] By using high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）, the contents of gallic acid （GA）, catechins （C）, epicatechin （EC）, epigallocatechin （EGC）, epicatechin gallate （ECG） and epigallocatechin gallate （EGCG） of 121 tea germplasms from the China National Germplasm Tea Repositories （CNGTR） at the Tea Research Institute of Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences （TRIYAAS） were measured. [Result] The content of GA ranged from 0.210% to 1.902%, with an average of 0.834%, explaining rela- tively low GA content among tea germplasms. The content of C ranged from 0.069% to 8.865%, with an average of 1.916%. The content of EC ranged from 0.126% to 2.865%, with an average of 1.112%. The content of EGC ranged from 0.00% to 3.709%, with an average of 0.954%. The content of ECG ranged from 0.739% to 8.957%, with an average of 4.063%. The content of EGCG ranged from 0.819% to 11.77%, with an average of 5.939%. The content of total C ranged from 6.354% to 22.654%, with an average of 14.042%. [Conclusion] There was relatively big difference of catechin contents among different tea resources, indicating that there was plentiful biodiversity of Yunnan tea germplasms. At the same time, three tea germplasms with high epigallocatechin gallate content （≥10%） was selected preliminarily, which would provide important materials for breeding tea cultivars with high EGCG content in the future.
In this paper,the research achievements and progress of Yunnan tea germplasm resource in past sixty years are systematically reviewed from the following aspects：exploration,collecting,conservation,protection,identification,evaluation and shared utilization.Simultaneously,the current problems and the suggestions about subsequent development of tea germplasm resources in Yunnan were discussed,including superior and rare germplasm collection,tea genetic diversity research,biotechnology utilization in tea germplasm innovation,super gene exploration and function,the construction of utilization platform,biological base of species and population conservation.
