Herbs - Medicinal Plants
Scientific name: Thea sinensis
Other names: Camellia sinensis, green tea.
Family: Theaceae.
Tea is a shrub that grows up to four meters high, evergreen, alternate leaves, elliptic, pointed, toothed and coriaceous leaves, six to eight inches long and three inches wide. It has white flowers, axillary and with peduncle, capsular fruit, globose habit, with three blackish seeds. The parts used are leaves which take different names according to the treatment they experience: Green Tea or Black Tea.
Tea was originally grown in China over 1000 years ago. Today it is cultivated in India, China, Sri Lanka, Japan, Indonesia, Kenya, Turkey,
Pakistan, Malawi and Argentina.
The major active ingredient of the tea plant are the xanthic bases: caffeine, theophylline, theobromine (whose content depends on the development stage of leaves), adenine and xanthine, caffeine predominates with 3 to 4%.
It also contains catechic tannins that may be combined with the xanthic bases.
Tea also contains abundant flavonoids, phenolcarboxylic acids, mineral salts (high amounts of fluorides 130-160 mg / kg), vitamins and small amounts of terpenes (theafolia
saponins).
>> continue reading about the Tea health benefits...
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