A.B. Sharangi¹ , M.D. Wasim Siddiqui² , J.E. Davila Avina³

1. Department of Spices and Plantation Crops Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya [Agricultural University], PO: KVV-741252, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India
2. Department of Food Science and Technology Bihar Agricultural University, BAC, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar , 813210, India
3. Laboratorio de Bioquímica y Genética de Microorganismos Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, UANL, Mexico
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2014, Vol. 4, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2014.04.0001
Received: 19 Nov., 2013    Accepted: 25 Dec., 2013    Published: 02 Jan., 2014

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Sharangi et al., 2014, Black Tea Magic: Overview of Global Research on Human Health and Therapeutic Potentialities, Journal of Tea Science Research, Vol.4, No. 1 1-16 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2014.04.0001)

Tea is the second most frequently consumed cheapest non-alcoholic beverage worldwide,   black tea is the most produced type, followed by green and Oolong tea. The venture of this paper is to focus on the latest research efforts regarding the health effects related to consumption of black tea and derive some future research directions towards its therapeutic potentialities. With a view of the above, comprehensive information on the fermentation process, composition, and quality of black tea has been provided. Several major beneficial roles of black tea are antioxidant activity, antiulcer effect, anti-inflammatory effect, antimicrobial properties, anticancer properties, antimutagenic activity along with the attenuating or reducing effects on blood pressure, CHD and cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, oxidative damage are important. Moreover, black tea has proven to enhance insulin activity, helps in treating asthma, retard cataract, maintains fluid balance, bone health and dental health, improves mean body mass index and body weight, prevents cellular DNA damage, inhibits HIV, lowers stress hormone levels, etc. The potential effect on human biosynthetic pathways related to oxidative processes as well as that on cognitive performance has also been discussed with citation from various research findings.

Camellia sp; Black tea; Polyphenols; Human health; Therapy