The oil of Camellia spp. has become a well-known high-quality edible oil because of its rich nutrition. It is of great significance to breed fine varieties of Camellia spp. for the sustainable growth of the Camellia spp. industry. This study mainly evaluated the quality and antioxidant capacity of the camellia seed from several sources. The fatty acid composition and main active components of 40 kinds of C. oleifera, C. vietnamensis, C. osmantha, and C. gigantocarpa seeds, and so on, from different regions, were tested using GC-MS and HPLC. The quality of different Camellia spp. germplasm resources was comprehensively evaluated using multiple indices. The unsaturated fatty acid content and the antioxidant capacity of C. vietnamensis from Hainan were higher than those of C. oleifera Abel. In addition, there were a few differences in the fatty acid compositions of Camellia spp. oil from different species. Correlation analysis confirmed that rutin, total saponin, total flavonoids, squalene, and vitamin E were strongly correlated to the antioxidant capacity of Camellia spp. In the comprehensive evaluation, the best quality and strongest antioxidant activity were found for Chengmai Dafeng (C. vietnamensis). These methods in the study were applied for the first time for the quality evaluation of the Camellia spp. species. This study provided new insights into the quality evaluation of the Camellia spp. species, thus facilitating further development of variety breeding along with quality evaluation.
Keywords: Camellia spp.; antioxidant activity; fatty acid composition; minor compounds; quality.