Nara Medical University (奈良県立医科大学, Nara Kenritsu Ika Daigaku) reported on November 27th, 2020, that their research confirms that green tea sold in the market can kill or make the virus harmless.
The research is the first stage of the study, and they have not tested with the human body yet; however, adding COVID virus to green tea for one minute reduced their infection by 99%.
They said that the test results differed for a different brand of tea. The university is considering publicizing the brand name after contacting the tea manufacturers.
The research was led by Dr. Hisakazu Yano 矢野寿一.
The team used ten types of bottled green tea and black tea; they mixed the virus with tea and tested their infection over time.
The most effective tea was loose leaf black tea, and the virus lost 1/100 of its infectious power in one minute; after 10 minutes, it lost its infectious power by 1/1000.
Dr. Yano mentions that "there is a possibility of effectiveness in the human body since catechin's effectiveness against influenza has already been proven in the human body by consuming tea."
Dr. Yano also mentions that tea's catechin attaches itself to protruding proteins, which reduces the infectiousness of influenza, and he hypothesizes that the same is happening with COVID-19.
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The image is from the November 27th edition of the Sankei Newspaper in Osaka.
Thank you very much for Kuniaki Tsunoda sharing this first on the Green Tea Club Private Facebook Group.
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Kei Nishida
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Hi Freya,
Thank you very much for your comment.
The lab was done for direct contact with the virus. The study with the human body has not been done yet. Since tea provides a better immune system, I would assume that tea does help; however, the effect in the human body against COVID19 has not been proven yet.
Does tea have to come in direct contact with the virus? Does drinking tea have any effect?