Catatan Kecil

Introduction to the History of Tea I. ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS Today the tea bush is known as Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze of which there are two varieties: var. sinensis and var. assamica. In 1690, E. Kaempfer, a German medical doctor cum botanist who came to Japan from Holland and observed the habit of tea drinking among the people, named the bush ‘‘thea.’’ In 1753, the famed botanist C. Linne gave to it the name of Camellia sinensis changing his original naming of Thea sinensis. Since then the nomenclature of the tea bush has been confused between these two names. In 1958, a British botanist J. R. Sealy classified all plants in the genus Camellia and tea was given the name it has today.      Tracing the origin of the tea bush is laborious work, since it spans countless numbers of geological years from the Tertiary period on and covers vast mountainous areas in south eastern Asia. General consensus attributes the birth of the tea bush to the area we...

What you eat and drink can be the cause of a disabling or deadly disease, or it can extend your life span to a healthy old age. What is beneficial and what is harmful? In the United States, and many other countries, investments have been made in medical research that have led to major successes in disease prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. Advances in the basic sciences such as nutrition, biochemistry, pharmacology, and pathology have provided an understanding of cell and tissue behavior and factors that impinge on their proper functioning, as well as the elements that go wrong and lead to disease processes.      Despite these advances, however, there is still significant premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, many types of cancer, and problems associated with aging, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other mental and psychiatric conditions. Many of these diseases have been found to be associated with nutritional traditions, eating habits, and l...