The Ingredients of chinese Tea

4 min read

Reading through the history of tea drinking，we could find that it was because tea was helpful to the health of people that made it a kind of drink and later popularized in people’s life quickly.According to the scientific analysis，most ofthe chemical ingredients in tea leaves are known related to the medicines used in curing.Its general effects could be divided into nutritive effect and curative effect，so people see tea as a tonic drink.

The Ingredients of Tea

According to the records in A Supplement to Materia Medica，tea was a good medicine that could cure many diseases.Although not necessarily miraculous in daily life，the curative ingredients contained in tea were proved by the modern medicine.

The modern curative research found that there are really many ingredients in tea that are closely related to the human health and do have curative effects.The main ingredients are as follows：

Vitamins

Vitamins is an indispensable material in the normal metabolism of human body，and tea contains many kinds of water-soluble and K lipsoluble vitamins that human body needs.

Catechin

According to the medical research，the catechins contained in tea mainly have the functions of antioxidation，alleviation of the toxicity of heavy metal，protecting cardiovascular system，preventing and curing arteriosclerosis and the functions of eliminating toxicant，diuresis and sterilization.It also has the effects of strengthening vein walls and cardiac muscles，reducing blood pressure，promoting absorption of Vitamin C，restraining the growth of bacilli，helping digestion，restraining the expansion of cancer cells and preventing the formation of thrombus etc.

However，there are different amounts of catechin content in different kinds of teas.Generally，catechins in green tea can be up to 15%～35%of the dry weight，and in some kinds of tea it may even exceed 40%；however，black tea has substantially less catechin than green tea due to its oxidative preparation.

Caffeine

Caffeine，the alkaloid with the highest content in tea，is regarded as a kind of analeptic，which could make the thinking of one’s brain more rapid and clear，eliminate drowsiness and fatigue of muscles，make people more acute and heighten motive function.Besides，according to the medical theories，after the nerve centre is stimulated，it will turns to be restrained.Therefore if people suffer from insomnia，they could drink tea in the morning，making the nerve system highly stimulated during the day time and turn to highly restrained later.Combining withthe practices of abstaining from all stimulating foods during the day，the symptom of insomnia would be much reduced at that night；and the insomnia would be cured if people keep doing this for several days.In this way，tea also has the function of curing insomnia，which is much healthier than the therapy of soporific.

Many Organic Acids

There are many kinds of acids in tea，among which organic acids are the majority；usually there are the amino acid in protein，ascorbic acid（vitamin C），gallic acid of chemical compounds rich in phenol, volatile acetic acid, propanoic acid, butyric acid, oxalic acid, malic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, etc, all are good to the health of human body.

We know that tea presents a slight acidity, and the acidity of gastric juice is much higher than tea. The organic acids and alkaloid in tea, such as morphine and nicotine could be neutralized into salts that could easily dissolved into water and then be discharged out of the body through urine. Therefore, it is especially good for smokers to drink tea.

In addition, chlorophy11 fatty acid in tea leaves has the diminishing inflammation functions of destroying bacteria and inhibiting canker, which could be used to cure chronic osteomyelitis and chronic ulcer, wound and burn of skin, and accelerate the regeneration of tissue etc. Carotene in tea leaves is one of the pigments that compose the fragrance of tea leaves, which could transform into Vitamin A.

Other Nutrition Ingredients

In addition to the nutritive ingredients mentioned above, there are also many useful minerals in tea leaves, for example the macro elements that are indispensable to human body, such as natrium, magnesium, phosphorus, Potassium and calcium etc, and also the microelement quite important to the health of human body, such as silicon, vitriol, manganese, iron, cobalt, arsenic, Selenium, Fluorine, molybdenum, Strontium, rubidium and boron etc. Amino acid could help stimulate people, so as an assistant drug it is helpful in curing diseases such as cardiac or bronchial heart disease, the defect of coronary artery cycling, cardiac oedema, etc.

Protein has the function of supplementing amino acid and maintaining the balance of nitrogen. Protein is the essential material that composes the organic bodies; without protein, life would also disappear.

Carbohydrate has the functions of preserving body heat, strengthening immune ability, resisting radiation and promoting diuresis.

These ingredients of tea leaves are mostly detected from the dried tea, but in daily life, people usually drink the tea that are brewed, therefore the content of these ingredients in brewed tea certainly are much lower. However, as long as we drink tea properly and correctly, it could still do much good to our health.