Abstract: The major nutrients, amino acid composition and mineral element contents of blackberry leaves were analyzed and compared with those of the leaves of other plants such as wolfberry, persimmon, mulberry, Ampelopsis grossedentata and Vaccinium dunalianum. Blackberry leaves were found to have higher contents of crude protein (20.39 g/100 g), cellulose (14.52 g/100 g) and total flavonoids (3.75 g/100 g). It contained a full range of amino acids and were higher in the contents of total amino acid and essential amino acids than the leaves of other five plants. Moreover, micro-mineral elements essential for human body such as Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn showed higher levels in blackberry leaves, small amounts of Cd, Cr, and Co were also found, and the Pb content was 3.18 mg/kg, which was lower than the national limit for tea. This study demonstrates that blackberry leaves can be processed into high-quality tea and hold promise for further research and development due to abundance of flavonoids.

Key words: blackberry leaves, nutrients, amino acids, mineral elements