Camellia Sinesis and Thea Assamica are two names for one and the same plant.
When western sceintists ‚discovered‘ the plant in China they called it Chinese
Camellia, as it indeed belongs to the species of Camellia. When the Britisch
discovered the plant in the forests of Nagaland, they called it Thea Assamica (
as it was discovered close to Assam ), not knowing that this could be the
ancient version of what had already been named Camellia Sinensis. Later this
plant was cultivated in the delta of the Brahmaputra and, still today, the
leaves in this area are considerably larger than in other plantation in India.
Today planters differentiate between the China and the Assam teabush. There is
no evidence that the tea plant, from more northern areas in China, has its roots
in the southern rainforests. Fakt is, that the amount of valuable ingredients in
the cultivated leaf is much lower than in those of the ancient plants.
If you visit tea fields in elevation of 2000m, you will find very small
plants with tiny leaves. Maybe an indication that the climat has shapped the
leaves of these tea bushes. Valuable ingredients in the tea plant are
Polyphenols ( Tannins ) and Caffein. During processing the amount of caffein
stays stable, while, during fermentation, the Polyphenols are converted to
Flavonoids. Fermentation can be oxidisation ( black tea or oolong ) or
lacto-fermentation ( Pu Erh ), the result, concerning the polyphenols, is the
same.
Depending on the time of oxidisation, more or less Polyphenols are converted
into Flavonoids. In comparisson to estate tea, wild teas have up to 85% more
Polyphenols and 30% more Caffein in the fresh leaf. One of the reasons why these
teas have a much higher flavour content.