Green Tea Health Benefits and Applications (Food Science and Technology) (Hardcover)

by Yukihiko Hara (Author) "Today the tea bush is known as Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze of which there are two varieties: var. sinensis and var. assamica..." (more)
Key Phrases: galloyl catechins, catechin purity, catechin administration, Mut Res, Agric Biol Chem, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"…the first detailed treatise on tea’s history and production. "Coverage of the subject matter is excellent. -- Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics

"…timely and comprehensive." -- Food Trade Review

This book … is an update of all the recent and new research into tea. There is increasing scientific validation of the health benefits of green tea. … This book elaborates on the significance of fermentation processes in green and black teas. What did the Chinese of yester-year know then that has taken us so long to appreciate?
- Food & Beverage Reporter, June 2004
From the Foreword. . . . . .We owe a debt to Dr. Y. Hara. . .for providing a detailed treatise on this topic which particularly emphasizes the significant health benefits to be gained by the oral intake of tea catechins....his discussion of their practical utility is sure to be of interest not only to those in tea and health sectors, but also in other diverse industries where possibilities for utilizing tea catechins exist. Dr. Hara is one of the world's experts on the manifold aspects of tea and health, and we are indebted to him to take the time to enrich us by sharing his vast knowledge with us.
---John H. Weisburger, Ph.D., M.D. American Health Foundation Valhalla, New York

This book … is an update of all the recent and new research into tea. There is increasing scientific validation of the health benefits of green tea. … This book elaborates on the significance of fermentation processes in green and black teas. What did the Chinese of yester-year know then that has taken us so long to appreciate?
- Food & Beverage Reporter, June 2004
From the Foreword. . . . . .We owe a debt to Dr. Y. Hara. . .for providing a detailed treatise on this topic which particularly emphasizes the significant health benefits to be gained by the oral intake of tea catechins....his discussion of their practical utility is sure to be of interest not only to those in tea and health sectors, but also in other diverse industries where possibilities for utilizing tea catechins exist. Dr. Hara is one of the worlds experts on the manifold aspects of tea and health, and we are indebted to him to take the time to enrich us by sharing his vast knowledge with us.
---John H. Weisburger, Ph.D., M.D. American Health Foundation Valhalla, New York

Product Description
Tokyo Food Techno Co., Ltd. Japan. Reviews the major constituents and the biosynthesis and fermentation processes in green and black teas. Examines the major health benefits and investigates cancer fighting properties and adjuvant therapies for neoplasias found in tea. For researchers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: CRC; 1 edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824704703
• ISBN-13: 978-0824704704
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,390,105 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The science of green tea in understandable prose, July 7, 2004

By	Paul T. Wegener (San Diego, California, USA) - See all my reviews

Dr. Yukihiko Hara was the first to purify green tea catechins on a larger scale. As Director of the Food Research Laboratories at Mitsui Norin Co, he and his colleagues worked in their extra time to purify these compounds and make them available in the late 1980's. The methods they developed are used today to purify the green tea extracts available from pills to shampoo. This book reports on their scientific efforts exploring the activity of the catechins and reviews the work of others in the field. It is clearly written in layman's language with many illustrations.

Key areas covered include where catechins come from and how they are purified, anti-oxidant and radical scavenging in food products and animals. Their tests, mostly in animals of the anti-bacterial action, the anti-viral action and the anti-cancer action, are reported in the next few chapters. Each chapter describes the experiments in sufficient detail so you can evaluate the meaning of the effect. There are further chapters on health effects in humans, including fat reduction and improved bowel function, help for diabetes and also hypertension, backed up by straightforward experiments. He ends with a general discussion of trends in the field.

Much of this work was done by Dr. Hara's group and close collaborators, so the original papers were published in Japanese; for many experiments this book is the only way to read about them in English. Green Tea Catechins are now studied around the world, but the quantities needed originated in this lab and he has supplied the catechins other scientists have used for most of that work. Mitsui Norin purified the catechins sold at Sigma Chemicals until this last year.

Currently Dr. Hara's group has a collaborative research effort with the US National Cancer Institute to test the anti-cancer effects of green tea catechins in people with precancerous lesions. The book provides the background one needs to appreciate this effort and gives the history of the science leading up to the NCI trials in a convenient way.

Dr. John Weisburger, the distinguished research scientist from the Americal Health Foundation, has written a helpful foreword.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science of green tea, July 21, 2004

By	S. Henning "susanne" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book by Dr. Hara gives an excellent overview of the basic scientific progress in green tea research. Dr. Hara has devoted his live to the promotion of green tea and is an expert in the field.