Green Tea as an Agricultural Based Health Promoting Food: The Past Five to Ten Years

Agriculture

Qin-Yin Shi¹ 

[1] Department of Food Science and Technology, 143 Filley Hall, University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0919, USA; E-Mail

关键词: green tea;    phenols;    flavonoids;    oxidative stress;    inflammation;    health;    catechins;   

DOI  :  10.3390/agriculture2040393

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The consumption of tea originated in ancient China over 4000 years ago and is currently the second most popular beverage in the world after water. Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot water over cured leaves of theCamellia sinensis plant. The link between tea intake, most notably green tea, and health has resulted in intense research on the components responsible for preventing the onset of several chronic diseases, including atherosclerosis, cancer, obesity and diabetes. In particular, the high levels of chemically diverse phenols (e.g., phenolic acids, flavonoids) present in tea exhibit potent protective properties against many of these diseases. Although health related research on green tea and its predominant phenol (catechins) has been on-going for decades, major advances have occurred in the last 5–10 years. Therefore, this review focuses on seminal studies reported primarily within the last five years but not extending past ten years on the link between health and green tea with an emphasis on the catechins.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.