The influenza season is starting now, and there is good news for green tea drinkers. Researchers have found that green tea can protect against the influenza virus. Not only by drinking the tea but also by applying it externally to the skin.
Researchers from the Biotechnological Institute at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, have tested the effect of combating the virus with green tea. Different solutions and concentrations of green tea were applied to artificial skin to observe the effects and were compared with a pharmaceutical agent for fighting the virus.
It turned out that all concentrations of green tea, even at the lowest concentrations, were effective, according to lead researcher Woo-Jin Shin. In the experiment, the skin was exposed to a solution of one green tea bag per 120 ml of hot water at the low end and 2-3 tea bags per 120 ml of hot water at the high end. The virus placed on the skin treated in the control group with a pharmaceutical agent remained intact, while the virus treated with green tea disappeared.
So there may also be good reason to use tea as soap, but Simply Tea now recommends that you drink the tea and enjoy its flavor at the same time.
The experiment was published in March 2012 in: Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bbb/advpub/0/advpub_110764/_article