A diet high in polyphenols is associated with a diversified gut microbiome. Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, after water. The health benefits of tea might be attributed to the presence of polyphenol compounds such as catechins, theaflavins, tannins, and flavonoids. Although many studies are on tea, little is known of its effects on trillions of gut microbiota. Hence, this review is aimed at systematically studying the effect of tea polyphenols on the stimulation or suppression of gut microbiota in humans and animals. It was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol. Articles were retrieved from PubMed and Scopus databases, and data were extracted from 6 human trials and 15 animal studies. Overall, huge variations were observed in terms of microbiota composition between humans and animals. A more consistent pattern of diversified microbiota was observed in animal studies. Tea alleviated the gut microbiota imbalance caused by high-fat diet-induced obesity, diabetes, and ultraviolet-induced damage. Overall changes in microbiota composition measured by beta diversity analysis showed that tea had shifted the microbiota from the pattern seen in animals that received tea-free intervention. In humans, the prebiotic-like effect was observed towards gut microbiota, but these results appear in lower-quality studies. Beta diversity in human microbiota remains intact despite tea intervention; supplementation with different teas affected different types of bacterial taxa in the gut. These studies suggest that tea polyphenols may have a prebiotic effect in disease-induced animals and in a limited number of human interventions. Further intervention is needed to identify the mechanisms of action underlying the effects of tea on gut microbiota.

Technological advances in tea production are critical to meet global demands for tea consumption. To illuminate differences in the scientific and commercial relevance of research programs between major tea-related research organizations around the world, we conducted a bibliometric analysis comparing the scientific outputs, including peer-reviewed publications and patents, of six major research organizations published between January 01, 2008 and July 11, 2020. For this competitive ranking analysis, we examined a number of papers, research topics, academic influence, capacity for development, capacity for collaboration, and capacity for technological innovation. Among the six research organizations, Anhui Agricultural University (in China) had the most publications, while the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tea Research Institute showed a higher capacity for development. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (in India) and the University of Shizuoka (Japan) both showed high academic influence, while the University of Shizuoka, Tea Research Association Tocklai and National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (Japan) showed a high capacity for collaboration. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tea Research Institute applied for the most patents, while the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research applied for the most international patents.

The physicochemical parameters, mineral composition, and nutraceutical properties of commercial “mekmeko” teas powder were analyzed in the present study. The pH of samples was slightly acidic (3.74 to 4.15), titratable acidity was low (0.094 to 0.155%) and sensory attributes (over all acceptability) were wide variable (5.9 - 6.69). The optimized selected commercial “mekmeko” tea obtained pH(4.05), titrable acidity(0.069%) ,acceptable sensory results (6.69), acceptable highest content of zinc (0.069 mg•L−1), magnesium (2.12 mg•L−1), potassium (62.34 mg•L−1),iron (0.28 mg•L−1) and calcium (17.19 mg•L−1). The nutrceticual property of optimized commercial “mekmeko” tea obtained acceptable highest content in total phenols (211.38 mg•L−1), total flavonoids (62.98 mg•L−1), total catechins (409.67 mg•L−1), and total anthocyanins (581.97 mg•L−1). Optimized “Mekmeko” teas showed the highest antioxidant capacity levels in DPPH (718.41 μmolTE•L−1), ABTS (607.62μmolTE•L−1), and FRAP (953.81μmolTE•L−1) assays. The results obtained in the present work give information to consumers for choosing flavored-colored ready-to-drink “mekmeko” tea based on the physicochemical, nutritional and nutraceutical properties.

Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin (RF) is an essential micronutrient for human health and must be obtained from dietary sources. Plants biosynthesize riboflavin and are important dietary sources of vitamin B2 for humans. Our present study reports sensitive detection of Vitamin B2 in widely consumed for tea infusions, namely black, green, sage and rosemary tea infusions, by a capillary electrophoresis method combined with laser induced fluorescence detection. Moreover, the correlation between Vitamin B2 contents of tea plants with their total phenolics (TPs) and antioxidant capacity are evaluated in this study. Whereas green teas have the highest TPs and antioxidant capacity, the highest RF contents are in sage infusions. The RF contents range between 0.34 and 10.36 µg/g for all tea samples studied. Comparing RF contents of tea samples found in this study to the RF contents of known RF sources, tea infusions are proposed as important dietary sources of Vitamin B2.

Fracture is a global public health disease. Bone health and fracture risk have become the focus of public and scientific attention. Observational studies have reported that tea consumption is associated with fracture risk, but the results are inconsistent. The present study was conducted to evaluate whether tea consumption was causally associated with the risk of bone fracture through two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis. We included a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) associated with tea consumption of 447,485 individuals and analyzed the effects of genetic instruments on fractures using fracture cases from the UK Biobank dataset (n=361,194). Inverse variance weighted (IVW) indicated no causal effects of tea consumption on fractures of the skull and face, shoulder and upper arm, hand and wrist, femur, calf, and ankle (odds ratio=1.000, P=0.881; OR=1.000, P=0.857; OR=1.002, P=0.339; OR=0.997, P=0.054; OR=0.998, P=0.569, respectively). Consistent results were also found in MR-Egger, weighted median, and weighted mode. Our research provided evidence that tea consumption is unlikely to affect the incidence of fractures.

Green Tea Catechins (GTCs) are a family of chemically related compounds usually classified as antioxidant molecules. Epidemiological evidences, supported by interventional studies, highlighted a more than promising role for GTCs in human Prostate Cancer (PCa) chemoprevention.In the last decades many efforts have been made to gain new insights into the mechanism of action of GTCs. Now it is clear that GTCs anticancer action can no longer be simplistically limited to their direct antioxidant/pro-oxidant properties. Recent contributions to the advancement of knowledge in this field have shown that GTCs specifically interact with cellular targets including, cell surface receptors, lipid rafts and endoplasmic reticulum, modulate gene expression through direct effect on transcription factors or indirect epigenetic mechanisms, interfere with intracellular proteostasis at various levels. Many of the effects observed in vitro are dose and cell context dependent and take place at concentration that cannot be achieved in vivo.Poor intestinal absorption together with an extensive systemic and enteric metabolism influence GTCs bioavailability through still poor understood mechanisms. Recent efforts to develop delivery systems that increase GTCs overall bioavailability, by mean of biopolymeric nanoparticles, represent the main way to translate preclinical results in a real clinical scenario for PCa chemoprevention.

The production of instant green tea requires hot-water extraction, which is time consuming and contributes to losses in aromatic compounds. In this study, an ultrasonic-assisted technology was used to improve the extraction efficiency of green tea, thereby shortening extraction time from 45 to 15 min. In pure water, the dissolution of caffeine and theanine did not change significantly, but total catechin dissolution increased by 0.23 mg/mL and total tea polyphenol dissolution decreased by 3.2 mg/mL. In 76.2% ethanol, the dissolution of caffeine and theanine did not change significantly, but total catechin dissolution increased by 1.57mg/mL and total tea polyphenol dissolution decreased by 1.5 mg/mL. Additionally, we used microwave-assisted technology to further improve the extraction efficiency of green tea, which shortened the extraction time to 2 min. However, the extraction rate remained unchanged. In pure water, the dissolution of caffeine and theanine did not change significantly, but the dissolution of total catechins increased by 0.41 mg/mL and the dissolution of tea polyphenols decreased by 2.9 mg/mL. Ultrasonic treatment increased the proportion of 3-hydroxybutan-2-one, (5S)-5-(hydroxymethyl)oxolan-2-one and 2-phenylethanol, which were the main aroma compounds in tea. Microwave treatment changed the aroma compounds in tea, causing losses in aroma compounds with low boiling point and maintaining (5S)-5-(hydroxymethyl)oxolan-2-one. The taste and aroma of instant green tea improved based on sensory evaluation results.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of tea polyphenol （TP） on serum hormone, serum enzyme activity, antioxidant-related and immune-related gene expression of laying hens under heat stress. A total of 288 Chinese yellow chicken (186 days old) were randomly distributed among two treatments, each of which included 6 replicates of 24 hens. Dietary treatments were that the basal diet was supplemented with 200 mg / kg tea polyphenol. The study lasted for 7 weeks, including 1 week of adaptation and 6 weeks of the formal test. The content of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and total protein (TP) in serum significantly decreased by dietary supplementation with tea polyphenol. Dietary tea polyphenol supplementation improved serum superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) enzyme activity and decreased serum malondialdehyde (MDA) content in treatments compared to the control. However, supplementation of tea polyphenol did not affect the activity of serum catalase (CAT). The results indicated that long-term feeding of tea polyphenols help to increase the amount of hormones (FSH, E2) associated with reproduction in laying hens and thus improve egg production. It also improved the immune function of laying hens in high temperature environments. Adding tea polyphenols to the diet can significantly increase the serum IgG, IgM content of the laying hens and can upregulate the IgA content. Dietary supplementation of tea polyphenols in the laying hens significantly increased the expression of antioxidant enzyme-related genes (SOD, CAT and GPX1) in the liver. Moreover, the addition of tea polyphenols significantly increased the expression of immune-related genes (Interferon-γ (INF-γ), Interleukin 2 (IL-2) and Interleukin 4 (IL-4)) in the spleen. It is concluded that addition of tea polyphenols has a positive effect on antioxidant activity and immune function of laying hens.

Tea (Camellia sinenesis) is a health beneficial beverage and is also a source for extracting bioactive components such as theanine, tea polyphenols (TPP) and tea polysaccharides (TPS). TPS is a group of hetero-polysaccharides bounded with proteins. There were tests showing that TPS had various bioactivities, such as antioxidant, antitumors, antihyperglycemia, anti-inflammation and improving immunity. However, inconsistent results concerning chemical composition and bioactivity of TPS were published in recent years. The advances in chemical composition and bioactivities of TPS were reviewed in the present paper. The inconsistent and controversial results regarding composition and bioactivities of TPS were also discussed.

A healthy park-people relation depends essentially on the fair and sustainable maintenance of rural livelihood. When protected area is designated, rural people may face restrictions of access to land and resource use for multiple ecosystem services. In Wuyishan of China, we analysed the role of traditional tea cultivation during consistent protected area management to find ways to maintain stability of this social-ecological system in the new national park era. We used an intensive social survey to investigate tea’s role, perception of ecosystem services and impacts on tea cultivation from consistent conservation policies. Results showed that tea cultivation brought major household income and associated with multiple culture services. Protected area management affected land use and conservation outcomes were more obvious to farmers than economic and social ones. From the perspective of a social-ecological system, tea cultivation in national should be conservation-compatible activities from which the potentially lost economic value is remedied by ecological and cultural valorisation. To sustain the resilience of the social-ecological system, we proposed a three-scale management framework to regulate biophysical elements at land plot scale, to link production and market at the mountain level, and to secure tenure and encourage community participation at the landscape level.

The production of coffee leaf tea (Coffea arabica) in El Salvador and the influences of processing steps on non-volatile compounds and volatile aroma-active compounds were investigated. The tea was produced according to process steps of conventional tea (Camellia sinensis) with available possibilities on the farm. Influencing factors were the leaf type (old, young, yellow, shoots), processing (blending, cutting, rolling, freezing, steaming), drying (sun drying, oven drying, roasting) and fermentation (wild, yeast, Lactobacillus). Subsequently, the samples were analysed for the maximum levels of caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate permitted by the European Commission. The caffeine content varied between 0.37 g/100 g dry mass (DM) and 1.33 g/100 g DM, the chlorogenic acid between not detectable and 9.35 g /100 g DM and epigallocatechin gallate could not be detected at all. Furthermore, water content, essential oil, ash content, total polyphenols, total catechins, organic acids, and trigonelline were determined. Gas chromatography—mass spectrometry-olfactometry and calculating of the odour activity values (OAVs) were carried out to determine the main aroma-active compounds, which are β-ionone (honey-like, OAV 132-927), decanal (citrus-like, floral, OAV 14-301), α-ionone (floral, OAV 30-100), (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber-like, OAV 18-256), 2,4-nonadienal (melon-like, OAV 2-18), octanal (fruity, OAV 7-23), (E)-2 nonenal (citrus-like, OAV 1-11), hexanal (grassy, OAV 1-10), and 4-heptenal (green, OAV 1-9).

Recent lines of evidence suggest the intriguing hypothesis that consuming common culinary herbs of the mint family might help prevent or treat Covid. Individual citizens could easily explore the hypothesis using ordinary kitchen materials. I offer a philosophical framework to account for the puzzling lack of public health messaging about this interesting idea.

Soil bacteria drive key ecosystem functions, including nutrient mobilization, soil aggregation and crop bioprotection against pathogens. Bacterial diversity is thus considered a key component of soil health. Conventional agriculture reduces bacterial diversity in many ways. Compost tea has been suggested as a bioinoculant that may restore bacterial community diversity and promote crop performance under conventional agriculture. Here, we conducted a field experiment to test this hypothesis in a soybean-maize rotation. Compost tea application had no influence on bacterial diversity or community structure. Plant growth and yield were also unresponsive to compost tea application. Combined, our results suggest that our compost tea bacteria did not thrive in the soil, and that the positive impacts of compost tea applications reported elsewhere may be caused by different microbial groups (e.g., fungi, protists, nematodes) or by abiotic effects on soil (e.g., contribution of nutrients and dissolved organic matter). Further investigations are needed to elucidate the mechanisms through which compost tea influences crop performance.

Kidney diseases are a global health problem, and their frequency is continuously increasing. Available treatments provide limited kidney protection. The protective effect of the green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in several diseases have been extensively investigated. Experimental and clinical studies have shown that the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties of EGCG are promising for the treatment and/or prevention of kidney diseases. This review analyzes the available evidence on the effects, and the likely protective mechanisms of action, of EGCG in a broad spectrum of kidney diseases, including acute kidney injury, drug-induced nephrotoxicity, kidney stone disease, diabetic nephropathy, chronic kidney disease, and kidney fibrosis.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) is receiving great attention due to its unique properties such as high purity, water retention capacity, high mechanical strength, and biocompatibility. However, the production of BC has been limited because of high cost and low productivity. In this light, the isolation of new BC producing bacteria and selection of high productive strains became a promising issue. Kombucha tea is a fermented beverage in which the bacteria fraction of the microbial community is composed mostly by strains belonging to the genus Komagataeibacter. In this study Kombucha tea production trials were performed starting from a previous batch, and bacterial isolation was conducted along cultivation time. From the whole microbial pool, 46 isolates were tested for their ability in producing BC. The obtained BC yield ranged from 0.59 g/L, for the isolate K2G36, to 23 g/L for K2G30 used as the reference strain. The genetic intraspecific diversity of the 46 isolates was investigated using two repetitive-sequence-based PCR typing methods, which are the enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) elements and the (GTG)5 sequences, respectively. The results obtained using two different approaches revealed the suitability of the fingerprints techniques, showing a discrimination power, calculated as D index, of 0.94 for (GTG)5 rep-PCR and 0.95 for ERIC rep-PCR. In order to improve the sensitivity of the applied method, a combined model from the two genotyping experiments was performed, allowing to discriminate among strains.

This paper presents tea leaves moisture monitoring system based on RF reflectometry techniques. The system was divided into two parts which are the sensor and reflectometer parts. The large coaxial probe was used as a sensor of the system. The reflectometer part plays a role as signal generator and also data acquisition. The reflectometer-sensor system was operated with a graphical user interface at 1.529 GHz at room temperature. The system was able to measure the moisture content of tea leaves ranging 0% m.c to 50% m.c on a wet basis. In this study, up to five kinds of tea leaves bulk were tested. The mean of absolute errors in the moisture measurement for tea leaves was ±2.

Plants are affected by soil environments to the same extent they affect soil functioning through interactions between environmental and genetic factors. Here, five plant species (broad bean, pea, cabbage, fennel, and olive) grown under controlled pot conditions were tested for their ability to differently stimulate the degradation of standard litter. Litter, soil C and N contents and soil microbial abundance were measured. The architecture and morphological traits of roots systems were also evaluated by using specific open-source software (SmartRoot). Soil chemical and microbiological characteristics were significantly influenced by the plant species. Variations in soil C/N dynamics were correlated with the diversity of root traits among species. Early-stage decomposition of the standard litter changed on the basis of the plant species. The results indicated that key soil processes are governed by interactions between plant roots, soil C and N, and the microbial metabolism that stimulate decomposition reactions. This, in turn, can have marked effects on soil chemical and microbiological fertility, both fundamental for sustaining crops, and can promote the development of new approaches for optimizing soil C and N cycling, managing nutrient transport, and sustaining and improving net primary production.

Earthworms and soil microorganisms contribute to soil health, quality and fertility, but their importance in agricultural soils is often underestimated. This study aims at examining whether and to what extent the presence of earthworms [Eisenia fetida (Savigny, 1826)] affected the a) soil bacterial community composition, b) litter decomposition, and c) plant growth (Brassica oleracea L., broccoli; Vicia faba L., faba bean). We performed a mesocosm experiment in which plants were grown outdoors for four months with or without earthworms. Soil bacterial community structure was evaluated by a 16S rRNA-based metabarcoding approach. Litter decomposition rates were determined by using the tea bag index (TBI) and litter bags (olive residues). Earthworm number almost doubled throughout the experimental period. Independently of the plant species, earthworm presence had a significant impact on the structure of soil bacterial communities, in terms of enhanced α- and β-diversity (especially that of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Myxococcota, and Verrucomicrobia) and increased 16S rRNA gene abundance (+89% in broccoli and +223% in faba bean). Microbial decomposition (TBI) was enhanced in the treatments with earthworms, and showed a significantly higher decomposition rate constant (kTBI) and a lower stabilization factor (STBI), whereas decomposition in the litter bags (dlitter) increased by about 6% in broccoli and 5% in faba bean. Earthworms significantly enhanced root growth (in terms of total length and fresh weight) of both the plant species. Our results show the strong influence of earthworms and crop identity in shaping soil bacterial communities, litter decomposition and plant growth. These findings could be used for developing nature-based solutions that ensure the long-term biological sustainability of soil agro- and natural ecosystems.

The most common liver disorder nowadays is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) and it is a progressive disease that rises in severity from steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis to increase risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. It is a cause of great concern as there is an estimated seventy million Americans who are currently affected by NAFLD, and this is expected to only increase because of its association with obesity and diabetes and also a lack of therapies to keep its development and progression in check. In this particular study we performed a gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA) of differentially expressed genes in a green tea against methionine-choline deficient diet in high-fat patients in the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). The downregulated genes were used to perform an enrichment analysis and in the ARCHS4 TFs Coexpression database the most significant gene was found to be KLF5_human_tf_ARCHS4_coexpression. In the ARCHS4 Kinases Coexpression pathway database STYK1_human_kinase_ARCHS4 Coexpression was found to be the most significant gene. And finally for the upregulated genes a similar enrichment analysis was performed and in the humancy database γ-linolenate biosynthesis_Homo sapiens_PWY-6000 gene was discovered to be the most significant one. This study has used bioinformatics tools and the Enrichr software to perform a comparative analysis of differentially expressed gene sets for high-fat patients having a diet consisting of green tea against a methionine-choline deficient diet. Green tea is known to contain several antioxidants and polyphenols which provide protection against many liver diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). The present study simply tries to build awareness of this to the general public and allow them to learn more about certain diets which have protective effects against liver diseases. Hopefully by implementing these in their daily lifestyles the public can gain some form of protection against these types of liver disorders.