The First Agro-biological Characterization of Various Vine Tea (Ampelopsis cantoniensis (H&A) Pl.) Accessions Collected in Northern Vietnam

Vine tea (Ampelopsis cantoniensis (H&A) Pl.) is a beneficial herbal tea with a high content of the natural antioxidant dihydromyricetin (DHM). Five accessions of vine tea were collected from different locations in Vietnam, viz. VT-CD01 (collected in Sapa), VT-CD02 (Lai Chau - 1), VT-CD03 (Lai Chau - 2), VT-CD04 (Son La), and VT-CD05 (Bac Giang), and were grown in Sapa, Lao Cai, Vietnam from 2017 to 2020 to evaluate their agro-biological characteristics and DHM contents. The leaf color, color of the young petiole, and leaflet shape of these accessions showed similar morphological characteristics to the snake wine vine. VT-CD01, VT-CD02, and VT-CD04 featured purple young leaves, whereas the leaves of VT-CD03 and VT-CD05 were green. VT-CD01 and VT-CD02 showed the best growth with the highest numbers of branches, high yields, and high DHM contents (35.02% in VT-CD01 and 35.25% in VT-CD02). The DHM in VT-CD03 (34.41%) and VT-CD04 (30.86%) also were high, whereas that in VT-CD05 (6.3%) was lower than the requirement of Vietnamese Pharmacopeia V (18%). The accessions VT-CD03, VT-DC04, and especially VT-CD01 and VT-CD02 should be cultivated and are recommended for the treatment of inflammatory-related diseases.