The health benefits of tea leaves are well known. In addition to reducing mortality, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes risks, new research points out that making tea may have another unexpected health benefit: purifying drinking water. According to a study published in the American journal ACS Food Science and Technology, it is pointed out that when making tea, tea leaves or tea bags can absorb toxic heavy metals such as penis and slurries in the water, achieving a clean water effect.
Soak a pack of tea leaves for 3-5 minutes to remove 15% of the crane.research was led by the team of Vinayak Dravid, a professor of engineering at Northwestern University. They originally studied marine materials that could remove pollutants, but later they started to use the following: Can tea bags filter pollutants in water like filter membranes?
teams produce heavy metal water samples containing steaks, steaks, coppers, ash, steaks and pendants, and then add various tea leaves (including loose leaves and tea bags) to simulate the actual tea making process. They heat the water to near boiling point, soak the tea leaves for a few seconds to 24 hours, and then measure the metal level in the water. It turns out that a cup of regular hot tea (using a pack of tea leaves for 3 to 5 minutes) can remove about 15% of the cut, which works even if the initial concentration is as high as 10 ppm (10ppm).
The tea bag material affects the effect, and the fiber tea bag has good adsorption effect.Research shows that red tea or ground tea leaves are more capable of adsorbing metal ionics than intact leaves because they have larger surfaces. The material of tea bags also affects the effect: the adsorption effect of cotton and nylon bags is poor, while the effect of fiber-fired tea bags is better.
But the biggest factor is the tea making time. The researchers emphasized: "The shorter soaking time affects the adsorption effect more than the types of tea. Whether it is green tea or red tea, the difference between two minutes and ten minutes is much greater than the difference between different tea types."
It is worth noting that previous studies have also shown that some tea leaves themselves may contain heavy metals. However, this study provides another point: heavy metals are mostly attached to the tea leaves, rather than dissolved in the tea soup.
Researchers said that if the water quality in the area is good or there is already filter equipment, there is no need to make additional tea to clean the water; but if from the perspective of population, even if only 1-2% of the metal is reduced, it may have a positive impact on health in the long run. American food scientist Dr. Kantha Shelke also reminded that research is still limited, such as using only deionized water, which does not cover multiple tea and tea bag materials, and more practical experiments are needed in the future to verify their effectiveness under real circumstances.