That’s correct. You didn’t misread the title. Nor is it a typo. Drinking tea might just help protect you from an attack using biological weapons such as anthrax or botulinum toxin. I know it sounds pretty far fetched, but I just read an article about a team of British and American researchers who got together to study the effects of tea on Bacillus anthrax. I haven’t been able to get a hold of the actual study yet -it’s a British journal published by the Society of Applied Microbiology - so I can’t comment on anything other than what is in the news article.

Prof. Baillie from the Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University and Dr. Theresa Gallagher, Biodefense Institute, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, for reasons only they could know, decided to compare the effects of English Breakfast tea and coffee on anthrax. They apparently found that tea had a much greater effect on the anthrax bacteria than did coffee. Prof. Baillie, stated “we found that special components in tea such as polyphenols have the ability to inhibit the activity of anthrax quite considerably.” Since they used black tea in this study, I can only assume that the “polyphenols” he referred to are primarily the thearubigins and theaflavins found in greater abundance in black tea than are the catechins. What we don’t know from this study is whether the catechin polyphenols, found primarily in white and green tea, would also have a significant effect on inhibiting anthrax or other biological agents. We also don’t know if consuming tea in the normal way would have as significant protective effect as testing it in vitro.

Given the traditional British penchant for black tea, Prof. Baillie, with tongue planted securely in cheek stated, “It has caused a few chuckles among my American friends, who have a $5 billion programme of research on medical countermeasures (for bioterrorism) and I just like the idea that all we Brits have to do is drink a cup of tea.”

Main Image  ::  Image 1