A first International Symposium on Tea in the United States was held in New York City on March 4,1991 with the title “Physiological and Pharmacological Effects of Camellia sinensis (Tea)” (1). In the field of nutrition and health, the usual investigations dealt with foods that were consumed as solids by humans and animals. It was also felt important to determine the role of beverages. In fact, adequate fluid intake is essential for life. Clearly, water is the beverage consumed to the greatest extent and in any food, raw or cooked, is part of the nutritional spectrum. Worldwide, tea turns out to be the second most common beverage consumed by humans, ever since it was introduced as a beverage in China some 4000 years ago. Yet, except for a certain folklore and popular dogma, there have been few serious studies on any beneficial or adverse effects of tea. Such research was conducted in the Orient and, in particular, in Japan and China, beginning about 1970, and these studies utilized green tea, the major beverage in the Orient. About 1985, Western scientists began research on tea and health, including studies in epidemiology to assess the role of tea in human health. Also, laboratory studies established essential information on the composition of tea, and various biochemical and physiological parameters associated with tea use. Furthermore, based on the knowledge from the composition of tea, the role of specific ingredients of tea under in vitro conditions was studied. The combined body of knowledge was presented at the Symposium in New York and also at several other meetings held elsewhere about the same time. In the intervening years, a number of conferences were held specifically dedicated to tea, or as sections of other scientific events of a more general nature, such as those organized by chemical societies in the United States and Japan, or those reporting on the effects of antioxidants, since one major component of tea with physiological actions is in the form of polyphenols, that are powerful antioxidants.
