Tea is a popular beverage with potential health benefits for those who consume it regularly. Tea products with health claims require scientific evidence based on clinical trials with generally accepted scientific data and newly developed scientific data. Tea products have been labelled FOSHU in Japan, claiming to reduce body fat and cardiovascular risk. In The USA, health claims on tea cannot be recommended and categorized as Qualified Health Claims. In Europe, health claims for tea still required further research to provide accepted scientific data. This review aims to explain the position of tea products based on the perspective of the regulatory framework of food health claims in the different official agencies in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Catalase from the thermophilic fungus Mycothermus thermophilus is a bifunctional enzyme with a secondary phenol oxidase activity (CATPO). MtCATPO catalyses the oxidation of catechol, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid and (+)-catechin to yield mainly dimers, and higher molecular weight oligomers and polymers. The role of this phenol oxidase activity is not known. Here, the antioxidant capacities (AC) of the phenolic substrates in the absence and presence of MtCATPO were compared. The oxidized products displayed enhanced AC reaching a maximum of 2.4-fold with catechol. Other phenol oxidases (laccase and tyrosinase) did not yield AC enhancement to the same extent. MtCATPO-treatment increased AC of green and black tea infusions, as well as water extracts of samples collected from a black tea production line up to 28%. The bifunctional MtCATPO appears to be an important antioxidant enzyme with a wide range of potential applications in the food, neutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals industry.

Tea is the most consumed drink after water as well as is one of the prevalent and the cheapest beverage which consumed globally. Tea is considered a healthy beverage due to the presence of several antioxidants and minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium & manganese. Different kinds of teas are manufactured in different countries based on taste, habit and culture of the people. Normally, tea can be categorized into three groups: green tea (unfermented), Oolong tea (partially fermented) and black tea (fully fermented) based on tea processing. Tea is a rich source of polyphenols and now-a-days interest in the possible health benefits of polyphenols, particularly flavonoids, has increased owing to their antioxidant and free-radical scavenging abilities. The rising demand of tea is considered one of the significant components for the worldwide beverage market growth. Tea industry makes a vital contribution to the economy of the respective tea producing countries like China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kenya etc. At the present time with the rising demand of tea it is needed to emphasize for exploring alternative means of increasing profits from tea cultivation. The tea market price is low in Different countries like Srilanka, India, Bangladesh, Kenya etc. comprises with high cost of production. For this reason, there is no alternatives rather than product diversification of tea through value addition which can be an important approach to mitigate the impacts of low market price and high production costs. This review broadly focuses on the issues leading to the development of wide range of tea and tea product diversification. This paper is also associated health benefits with different types of tea, nutraceutical beverage, confectionary items, toiletries and cosmeceuticals which being commercialized in different parts of the world which are gaining consumer acceptance and also face the challenges of global marketing by tea industries that’s are described in this paper.

Tea is one of the most important non-alcoholic beverage in the world and has been gaining further popularity as an important ‘health drink’ in view of its inferable medicinal value. In Bangladesh, commercially tea was cultivated since 1854 by establishing first tea garden Malnicherra Tea Estate in Sylhet. From 1947 to 2020, tea growing area, production and per hectare yield were increased 127.71%, 370.53% and 137.96% respectively. The major reasons behind the increasing tea productivity are extension of tea growing areas as well as cultivation of the tea clones (BT clones) released by Bangladesh Tea Research Institute (BTRI). Till now BTRI released 23 clones and 5 biclones, having average per hectare yield of 3461.67 kg. In the world, tea production, consumption and exportation have increased significantly. Unlike world condition, there is a negative relation between tea production and export in Bangladesh. From 1980 to 2020 the quantity of tea exports was decreased by 92.99%. This situation emphasizes the need for exploring alternative means by the tea industries of increasing profits from tea cultivation and tea export. As a result, researches on tea varietal improvement is needed for rapid economic growth and development of tea industry as well as to encourage tea plantation business to go ahead with more production to meet our own demand along with quality tea to flourish tea business in Bangladesh.

Tea has become an integral part of our culture and everyday life due to taste, together with a refreshing and mildly stimulant effect. The study was carried out to investigate the behaviour pattern and prevalence observed due to regular consumption of tea as a source of caffeine among the university students using a self-reported validated questionnaire. Socio-demographic and data related to tea consumption pattern were collected and analysed statistically. Among 245 study participants, the majority chose a greater proportion of tea (83.7%) followed by coffee (14.7%). The main reasons for tea consumption by university students included keeping alert during the examination period (38.8%), followed by the removal of anxiety and stress. Students (around 61%) mostly consume 2-3 cup of tea per day. According to the study, 12.7% of students had never consumed tea. More than two-thirds (66.9%) of the students reported having a sound sleep, normal BMI and blood pressure, a majority of them were engaged with regular physical exercise. The study also illustrated that most of the students (52.7%) give priority to the quality of the product rather than price, brand and taste while buying packaged tea leaves. Thus, this study provides basics about the prevalence and presents a recommendation for expanding tea consumption market among the university students.

Olive leaves have been catching consumers’ and researchers’ great interest because of benefits on human health. In this study, the olive leaves were dried by microwave method at different powers (52, 90, 167, 290, 347 W real effective power levels) and drying kinetics of olive leaves were examined to find the best mathematical model. Page model was the most suitable model rather than the others. Diffusion coefficients were ranged between 2.65×10-10 to 6.87×10-10 m2/s and an increment in power level promoted moisture diffusivities. Dried olive leaves were used to get leave tea and different infusion temperatures were investigated to recover the total polyphenols (mg GAE/kg) and radical scavenging activities (%). Rising in infusion temperature, especially at 100°C enhanced the extraction levels of polyphenols from leave tea. Olive leaves dried at 167 W had higher phenolic contents (2282.9 mg GAE/kg) among all samples.