Keywords: 
• wild tea /
• Wuzhishan /
• metabolomics /
• carbohydrate /
• phenol

Abstract: Tea prepared from wild tea leaves in the Wuzhishan region have become popular in the market over recent years. However, its metabolomic characteristics are seldom reported. An attempt was made to compare the metabolites found in the leaves of wild and cultivated tea in Wuzhishan, Hainan, China by employing a metabolomic method. A total of 398 metabolites were identified significantly up-regulated, and 247 were significantly down-regulated in the wild tea leaves compared to those from the leaves of tea cultivated in the tea plantations. Partial least squares discrimination analysis suggested that wild and cultivated tea could each be grouped into their respective categories. Enrichment analysis indicated that the functions of the metabolites with significant high content in the wild tea leaves were mainly concentrated in metabolic pathways such as glycolysis,pyruvate synthesis, amino sugar metabolism, and nucleotide sugar metabolism, as well as pathways for the synthesis of phenolic substances, riboflavin metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, and flavonoid synthesis. The functions of the metabolites with significantly low content were mainly enriched in primary metabolic pathways,such as amino acid metabolism and lipid metabolism.