SCIENTIFIC ANSWERS

Sorate has long been friends with Dr. Yukihiko Hara, one of the world's leading experts on the health aspects of the tea plant and the importance of regular consumption of green tea.

Tea is made from the tea plant Camellia sinensis, and tea leaves contain large amounts of polyphenols, most of which are flavonoids from the catechin family. These polyphenols polymerize after the leaves are harvested, resulting in the black tea known in the West. However, if the leaves are heated briefly immediately after harvest, the polyphenol oxidase enzyme is inactivated, no polymers are formed, and the tea leaves remain green.

Dr. Hara's research has shown that green tea polyphenols have antibacterial, anticariogenic, and antiviral effects; prevent cancer, lower lipid and glucose concentrations, and lower blood pressure.

Dr. Hara considers green tea a panacea: he explains that the tea's polyphenols "miraculously help maintain good health," and that from an early age he was “firmly determined [to] do every possible experiment in order to prove the theory that catechins are responsible for the health benefits of tea.”

Sorate's founder Silvia Mella and Dr. Yukihiko Hara in Tokyo

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