Hunan dark tea

 Hunan is the native place of world dark tea and the ancestor of China dark tea. More than one thousand years ago, Hunan dark tea was widely spread in the world. It grows at the northern section of the Xuefeng Mountains and the inner side of the Wuling Mountains, which benefit from favorable soil, distinct four seasons, plentiful rainfall, abundant sunshine, warm and moist climate (annual average sunshine time of 1,339 hours and annual average temperature of 16.2oC). The exploration data shows that the crustal movement which happened 600 million years ago made the Xuefeng Mountains become an area gathering the most tillites in the world. In this area, the reserves of tillites account for 85% of the total reserves of the world (in South Africa, it accounts for about 10%). For completely weathered soil, plentiful gravels and excellent ventilation, the tillites are rich in organic matters and mineral substance nutrient elements. Enjoying exceptional advantages of tillite soil and unique ecological environment, this area is recognized by the world tea experts as the best place for the growing of dark tea, therefore it is only in Hunan that top-quality dark tea is produced. China’s first brick dark tea, first Fu brick tea, first Flower brick tea and first Qianliang tea were all born in Hunan. It is well known: “Only China has dark tea in the world, only Hunan has dark tea in China”, “Hunan dark tea is exclusive in the world, Hunan dark tea is the most valuable in the world”.

Dark Tea Functions
1. Supplement dietary nutrition: nutrition constituent in the Hunan dark tea are mainly vitamin and mineral substance, with abundant protein, amino acid, saccharides etc. It’s called tea of life especially by nomadic people whose principal foods are beef, mutton and cheese with extremely insufficient vegetable and fruit,

2. Aid digestion, degrade grease, clean up intestines and stomach: caffeine, vitamin, amino acid, phospholipids etc. contained in the Hunan dark tea can help digestion, adjust fat metabolism and increase secretion of gastric juice, whet appetite. Japanese scholar, through scientific test, has proved that Hunan dark tea has strong functions on degrading grease and aid digestion etc. In addition, it can improve microbe environment in intestinal tract. In the past thousand of years, there was a tradition among Chinese, using old dark tea to treat diarrhea, dysentery and aid digestion.

3. Lower lipid, lose weight, soften vessel, and prevent cardiac-cerebral vascular disease: Hunan dark tea has extremely strong effect on degrading fat, resisting blood coagulation, aiding fiber protein dissolution, loosening vascular wall and adding valid diameter of vascular and which can restrain forming of atherosclerotic plaque in aorta and coronary artery inner wall to lower blood pressure and prevent cardiac-cerebral vascular disease. In 1990 the General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army, had conducted observation to 55 veteran cadres who had hypertension and hyperlipidemia diseases and constantly took Hunan dark tea for 180 days (3g/d). and among of them, 50’s blood lipid content and peroxide activity obviously declined. Through conducting epidemic survey, it’s indicated that in main dark tea consumption regions such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, Szechwan in China, Russia, Iran, UAE, France, America, England etc., drinking the Hunan dark tea for a long term has a sound adjustment effect to blood fat, blood sugar, blood pressure, vascular sclerosis and has control and adjustment effect to weight and figure. The Hunan dark tea is called “slimming tea” by the Japanese, “beauty tea” by the Koreans and “health tea” by the Europeans.

4. Antioxidant, delay aging, prolong life: Free radicals theory related to aging indicates that under normal physiology conditions, free radicals are constantly produced and eliminated in body and it keeps balance. The Hunan dark tea, not only contains abundant antioxidant substances such as theine, tea pigment, flavonold, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin D, carotene etc, but abundant antioxidant microelements such as Zn, Mn, Cu, Se etc., and catechin, theaflavin, theanine, tea polysaccharide, especially rich content of flavonoid contained in dark tea have function of eliminate free radicals in body with excellent effect on antioxidant and delaying cell aging.

5. Anticancer, anti-mutation: Since the late of 70s in the 20th century, scientists around the world successively have found that tea and extract from tea had inhibitory effect to happening of many cancers. China Agricultural University, through applying medicine screening technology, high throughput screening technology, do high throughput research on cancer cell model SGC7901 and proved that dark tea had obviously inhibitory effect to cancer cells.

6. Reduce blood pressure: Hunan dark tea has effect of reducing blood pressure and that’s reported in medical field long ago, in addition, it’s found that caffeine and catechin can soften vessel, and through vasodilatation to reduce blood pressure. Medical experts also found that dark tea pigment has remarkable effect on anticoagulation, aiding fiber dissolution, preventing platelets adhering and gathering , restraining artery smooth muscle cell hyperplasia and can obviously reduce triglyceride and low density lipoprotein in hyperlipemia animals and increase middle-high density lipoprotein and has obviously inhibitory effect to ACE ferment.
7. Improve carbohydrate metabolism, reduce blood sugar, prevent and cure diabetes mellitus: According to measuring tea polysaccharide, Hunan dark tea has highest tea polysaccharide content and activity of its components are more prominent than other kinds of tea. The reason is that during ferment of dark tea, because of action of glycosidase, protease, hydrolytic enzyme, carbohydrate chain and peptide chain with comparatively short length are formed, and short peptide chain is easier to absorb compared with long peptide chain with stronger bioactivity, and that’s the main reason that polysaccharide produced by dark tea ferment has better effect on reduce blood sugar in body than other kinds of tea.

8. Sterilize, diminish inflammation: researches shows that theaflavin is not only a eliminating free radicals and antioxidant agent, but has obviously antibiotic action to clostridium botulinum spores, enterobacteriaceae strains, staphylococcus aureus, bacillus capsulatus, bacillus cereus etc. In addition, theaflavin has sound inhibitory effect on influenza virus and rotavirus and enterovirus infection.

9. Diuretic and detoxifying, reduce damage from drinking alcohol and smoking: it’s a fact in the past thousand years without disputes that Hunan dark tea can aid urination and rapidly decompose nicotine toxins and toxins in alcohol.