Tea has been widely used as a beverage in China for thousands of years, and Chinese Emperor Shen Nung is believed to be the discoverer of tea in the 27th century BC. Tea’s medicinal properties have been suspected for centuries, but not until recently have they been proven.

Dr. Junshi Chen from the Chinese Academy of Preventative Medicine in Beijing headed a study of 59 people at risk from developing mouth cancer. A liquid solution of green and black tea was rubbed into the study-group’s pre-cancerous mouth-lesions - the infected or diseased patch of skin or tissue in or around the mouth - over a period of six months. Those treated with the green and black tea mixture showed significant reduction in the cancerous cells around the diseased tissue in their mouths. The others not treated with the tea showed no reduction at all!

Although the reason for the reduction in cancerous cells was not known, tea is known to contain several very powerful antioxidants that help fight cancer and tumour cells. However, more recently, Dr. James Morrie, of Purdue University (Indiana), and his team identified epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) as the compound in tea that inhibits cancer cell growth.

An enxyme called tNOX plays a key role in the growth of cancerous cells. Another similar enzyme called NOX helps in the growth of normal cells. EGCg (epigallocatechin gallate), found in tea, suppresses the tNOX enzyme so inhibits the growth of cancerous cells, but EGCg has no effect on the NOX enzyme. So tea, as a cancer-busting beverage, is also safe to drink because is does not affect the growth of normal cells.

Read more about the study here.