Health Benefits of Tea Consumption

Tea, a product of the leaves and buds of the Camellia sinensis (Theaceae) plant, is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Tea can be broadly classified according to the production method as unfermented (green tea), half-fermented (oolong tea), fully fermented (black tea), or post-fermented (pu-erh tea). Green tea is mainly consumed in Japan and China, whereas black tea is primarily consumed in Western countries, India, and other parts of the world. The global production of green tea accounts for only 20 % of the total amount of tea produced, which is approximately one fourth of that of black tea [1]. However, green tea has been the primary target for investigations on health and nutrition among the various teas as indicated by a search conducted in the PubMed database in January 2015, which showed approximately 6020, 3340, 330, and 100 publications for the keywords “green tea,” “black tea,” “oolong tea,” and “pu-erh tea,” respectively. When combined with cancer, for example, the corresponding numbers of publications were approximately 2000, 670, 40, and 10, respectively.