1) 33 medicinal and edible plants were studied for their chemical constituents. From which, 816 compounds referring to steroidal and triterpenoid saponins, iridoidal glucosides, phenylethanoid glycosides, flavonoids, hydrolyzable tannins, condensed tannins, lignans, etc., were obtained, and 189 of them were new natural products. The quality control and chemical fingerprint patterns of some studied plant materials were established by HPLC methods. The results enriched the content of the molecular diversity of natural products and will promote the reasonable usage of these medicinal, edible and tea-used plants.

2) Most of the isolates were evaluated for their bioactivities, e.g. antiviral, antifungal, antioxidant, anti-tumor, and liver protection activities. Their structure-activity relationships were discussed. Some molecules showed significant anti-fungal, anti-viral and antioxidant activities. Particularly, 5 hit antiviral compounds have been found and the further evaluations for their pharmaceutical properties are going on.

3) A research concerning of the plant origins, chemical constituents, quality evaluation and fermentative process on Pu-er tea was carried out. The new acylated flavan-3-ols, puerins A and B, were found to be the characteristic constituents of Pu-er ripe tea, together with two cinchonain-type flavan-3-ols. In addition, 7 predominant microbes were purified and obtained from the pile-fermentation of Pu-er tea and have been developed as inducer to accelerate the fermentative process for producing Pu-er ripe tea industrially. It was also found that both Camellia taliensis and C. crassicolumna var. multiplex are valuable plant resources for the production of tea beverages, while C. pachyandra, rich in hydrolysable tannins as potent antioxidants, should be not used for producing Pu-er tea, but could be developed as an ideal resource for natural beverage. The researches on Pu-er tea were awarded the third-class prize for the Progress in Science and Technology of Yunnan Province, China, in 2009.