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classification of drugs >>> caffeine >>>

Caffeine

Tea

There are many legends about the origin of tea, but the Chinese version is the best of all, supported with details, although it may not be more authentic than the rest. According to it the honor of this invention falls to the “Heavenly Healer” – the legendary emperor Shen Nun, who, as the Chinese are convinced, contrived almost the whole pharmacology and toxicology. The legend claims that this emperor had the rare, even in those remote times, ability to watch through his own body the work of his internal organs. His scientific productivity was inevitable – it is related that for only one day he swallowed 12 deadly poisons and invented antidotes to them. During one pleasant evening in 2737 BC, the emperor was seating next to the campfire, waiting for the water to boil (the Chinese from time immemorial do not drink non-boiled water). At this moment the evening wind blew several leaves from the branches, which were burning in the fire, got into the emperor’s pannikin. As a real scientist Shen Nun tried the result of this involuntary experiment and after he liked the drink he decided that he could write this plant to his scientific merits.  

Tea is made from the leaves of the plant Cammelia (Thea)sinensis, which in its wild form is a tree, but it is cultivated as bushes, which leaves can be easily gathered. The most qualitative tea with the highest content of caffeine is obtained only from the smallest leaves, from the top of each twig. Two types of tea exist. In the east, people drink green tea. It is made from relatively fresh leaves, quickly fire-dried and often this tea is aromatized, for example, with jasmine blossoms. In the west, the black tea is much more popular. It is obtained from the leaves, which are left to get dried, exposed to the sun for a long time and in this way they are partially oxidized; in this process the tea changes considerably its scent but the caffeine content remains one and the same – between 1 and 4%.