Insect tea

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Insect tea

Insect tea refers to teas (in the broad sense, not always tea proper) made from leaves bitten by, and the droppings of, insects fed on specific plants. Most insect teas originate from the Southeast Asian region. They are often used in local traditional medicine, but have not been well-studied in the scientific literature.

Contents

The insects and their hosts

Various insect teas are produced by small traditional communities particularly in the Southeast Asian hill regions, including southern China and Thailand. Not all insect sources and host plants have been studied or documented.

Some examples include:

Alleged medicinal properties

Many chemicals in plants have evolved[ citation needed ] to protect them from insects. Insects in turn have evolved[ citation needed ] biochemical mechanisms or symbiotic relationships with microbes that allow them to consume these plants. The faecal matter often concentrates certain chemicals that produce distinctive flavours and tastes – and claimed effects on human health. Insect teas are widely used in traditional Asian medicine, particularly in China.

A few academic journals have published papers reporting pharmacological effects of some of these teas or of chemicals found in them, though little follow-up research has been done as of 2019. For example, a 2015 Chinese study showed that polyphenols extracted from huaxiang tea reduced the count of liver cancer cells in vitro , by increasing their apoptosis rate (i.e., decreasing cell life-span). [8] The same paper also broadly claimed that "Traditional Chinese medicine can prevent and cure cancer", a view not widely accepted by science (see Traditional Chinese medicine ).

Since the 2000s, drinks purporting to be sanye tea (with widely varying other ingredients) have been marketed, especially in the West, as a dietary supplement with unsubstantiated weight-loss, laxative, and detoxification claims.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Camellia sinensis</i> Species of evergreen shrub

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Pseudopestalotiopsis theae is a plant pathogen affecting tea.

<i>Pyralis farinalis</i> Species of moth

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sang piao xiao</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiwanese tea</span> Teas from Taiwan

Taiwanese tea includes four main types: oolong tea, black tea, green tea and white tea. The earliest record of tea trees found in Taiwan is from 1717 in Shui Sha Lian (水沙連), present-day Yuchi and Puli, Nantou County. Some of the teas retain the island country's former name, Formosa.

<i>Homona coffearia</i> Species of moth

Homona coffearia, the tea tortrix or camellia tortrix, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. The species was first described by Nietner in 1861. It is widely distributed in the Oriental region.

Jacobiasca formosana, the tea jassid, is an insect species belonging to the subfamily Typhlocybinae of the family Cicadellidae. Plant hosts include Gossypium (cotton) species and, notably, Camellia sinensis. The species is distributed throughout East, Southeast, and South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychoactive plant</span> Plants that induce psychotropic effects upon ingestion

Psychoactive plants are plants, or preparations thereof, that upon ingestion induce psychotropic effects. As stated in a reference work:

Psychoactive plants are plants that people ingest in the form of simple or complex preparations in order to affect the mind or alter the state of consciousness.

<i>Camellia taliensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Camellia taliensis is a small species of evergreen shrub whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea.

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References

  1. Qin, Daozheng; Zhang, Li; Xiao, Qiang; Dietrich, Christopher; Matsumura, Masaya (2015-09-30). "Clarification of the Identity of the Tea Green Leafhopper Based on Morphological Comparison between Chinese and Japanese Specimens". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0139202. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1039202Q. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0139202 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   4589377 . PMID   26422616.
  2. There are at least three places named Huaxiang in China; it is unclear which (if any) of these the tea was named after.
  3. Xiao-Li, Shang; Mao-Fa, Yang; Chang-Rong, Zhang; Lan, Cai; Ting, Qiu (2013). "Effects of temperature on the growth and development of Pyralis farinalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), one insect used for producing insect tea in China". Acta Entomologica Sinica. 56 (6): 671–679.
  4. Xu, Lijia; Pan, Huimin; Lei, Qifang; Xiao, Wei; Peng, Yong; Xiao, Peigen (2013). "Insect tea, a wonderful work in the Chinese tea culture". Food Research International. 53 (2): 629–635. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2013.01.005.
  5. Nadchatram, M. (1963). "The winged stick insect, Eurycnema versifasciata Serville (Phasmida, Phasmatidae), with special reference to its life history". Malayan Nature Journal. 17: 33–40.
  6. McClure, H. Elliott (1995). Stories I like to Tell. Self published. p. 174.
  7. Chou, Tzu-Yun; Yang, Meei-Ju; Tseng, Shih-Kung; Lee, Shoei-Sheng; Chang, Chia-Chuan (2018). "Tea silkworm droppings as an enriched source of tea flavonoids". Journal of Food and Drug Analysis. 26 (1): 41–46. doi: 10.1016/j.jfda.2016.11.011 . PMC   9332646 . PMID   29389582.
  8. Suo, Huayi; Sun, Peng; Wang, Cun; Peng, Deguang; Zhao, Xin (2016). "Apoptotic effects of insect tea in HepG2 human hepatoma cells". CyTA: Journal of Food. 14 (2): 169–175. doi: 10.1080/19476337.2015.1076521 .