PURPLE LEAF TEA
Purple Leaf Tea is a cultivar of Camellia Sinensis (species) Assamica (varietal). It is called Purple Tea is because the bushes grow purple leaves in Kenyan tea gardens. This is not a gmo plant; it is completely natural and part of the tea family.
Purple tea has a pleasant, juniper berry and lite floral flavor. Some have said it has both black and green tea characteristics. We found it to taste very much like an oolong tea, with no-astringency and no tannin bitterness - and free of grassy or vegetal tea taste.
It's also very high in anthocyanins, the beneficial compounds found in blueberries, eggplant, purple grapes and other blue, purple or dark red foods.
Purple tea is low in caffeine (less than green tea, slightly more than white tea).
very new cultivar of camellia sinensis of the assamica type recently developed by Tea Research Institute and grown in Kenya. The tea has high level of anthocyanins, which are special antioxidants attributed with excellent health benefits. Purple tea has good diet effect as it inhibits lipid absorption and fat accumulation leading to weight loss. Helps to improve fat metabolism, has anti-aging effects and helps to even out skin tone. Purple tea also aids skin oxygenation due to presence of free radicle scavengers.
Purple Tea is a new cultivar of the tea family that is only found in the highlands of the Rift Valley in Kenya. This extraordinary, rare, and most fascinating tea is named after its distinctive, purple-reddish leaf pigmentation associated with very high presence of antioxidants called Anthocyanin.
In India, purple tea leaf bushes were initially discovered in Assam, possibly in a region called Namrup, and were found growing in the wild. In 1903, a British settler named G.W.L. Caine took purple tea plants from Assam and planted a few in Limuru, Kenya. Kenya has now emerged as a prominent producer of purple tea.
Purple tea contains L-theanine, an amino acid known for its relaxing properties, contributing to stress reduction.
Highlights: The optimized extract of purple tea leaves (OEPL) has antioxidant properties.
• OEPL was obtained with 60 °C, at 15 min, and 1 g-62.3 mL (mass-solvent ratio).
•Lyophilized OEPL inhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes.
•Exerted cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects against cancer cells.
•Lyophilized OEPL has anti-inflammatory effects in RAW 264.7 macrophages.
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/78081