Effect of Chinese Herbal Tea on Health Tested on Drosophila Model.

Chinese herbal tea has a long history in China, and is one of the most consumed beverage products as of now. However, whether herbal tea can really promote health and be considered as a functional food is still a question. The objective of this work was to assess the beneficial effect of herbal tea on health using Drosophila as the model. Adding commercially available herbal tea to food could increase average life span of fruit flies for more than 50%. Further tests showed that the effect of herbal tea was not dependent on specific single ingredient. The present results suggest that Chinese herbal tea may have beneficial effects to human health.