Applications of Chinese Camellia oleifera and its By-Products: A Review

Anping Wang

Chaochan Li

• ¹Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory for Information Systems of Mountainous Areas and Protection of Ecological Environment, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, China
• ²Key Laboratory of Forest Cultivation in Plateau Mountain of Guizhou Province, Institute for Forest Resources and Environment of Guizhou, Guizhou University, Guiyang, China

Camellia oleifera is a woody oil tree species unique to China that has been cultivated and used in China for more than 2,300 years. Most biological research on C. oleifera in recent years has focused on the development of new varieties and breeding. Novel genomic information has been generated for C. oleifera, including a high-quality reference genome at the chromosome level. Camellia seeds are used to process high-quality edible oil; they are also often used in medicine, health foods, and daily chemical products and have shown promise for the treatment and prevention of diseases. C. oleiferaby-products, such as camellia seed cake, saponin, and fruit shell are widely used in the daily chemical, dyeing, papermaking, chemical fibre, textile, and pesticide industries. C. oleifera shell can also be used to prepare activated carbon electrodes, which have high electrochemical performance when used as the negative electrode of lithium-ion batteries. C. oleifera is an economically valuable plant with diverse uses, and accelerating the utilization of its by-products will greatly enhance its industrial value.