Yuhong Huang , Guangman Xu

Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Journal of Tea Science Research, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 1   doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2025.15.0004
Received: 05 Jan., 2025    Accepted: 08 Feb., 2025    Published: 22 Feb., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Huang Y.H., and Xu G.M., 2025, Anti-inflammatory properties of tea: a research insight, Journal of Tea Science Research, 15(1): 30-37 (doi: 10.5376/jtsr.2025.15.0004)

Tea (Camellia sinensis), as a global drink and functional food, has attracted more attention to its anti-inflammatory activities over the past few years. The vast prevalence of inflammatory diseases and calls for prevention and control have motivated scientists to explore the nature's anti-inflammatory bioactive compounds in tea and their mechanisms. This study describes the major anti-inflammatory compounds of tea, including tea polyphenols, theaflavins and their derivatives, theanine, caffeine, and polysaccharides and volatile oils, and their molecular mechanisms in regulating oxidative stress, inhibiting inflammatory signaling pathways, modulating cytokine expression, influencing immune cell function, and changing gut microbiota. It is also furthered to provide the most recent advances from animal models, human intervention trials, and in vitro studies, and discusses the promise of tea's anti-inflammatory activity in functional foods, medicinal foods, and dermatological preparations. In the face of challenges like complexity of active ingredients, processing effects, insufficiency of sufficient clinical evidence, and safety of dosage, this review also discusses multi-dimensional research integration and comparative evaluation of different study outcomes, establishing scientific basis for public health and industry pragmatic significance of tea's anti-inflammatory research. This study offers theoretical justification for the production of tea-based natural anti-inflammatory products and directs future experimental and clinical investigation.

Tea; Anti-inflammatory activity; Tea polyphenols; Molecular mechanisms; Functional foods