The Lipton Institute of Tea is a dedicated tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

 research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

 facility owned by consumer goods company Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

, which also owns the Lipton

Lipton

Lipton is a brand of tea currently owned by Unilever.-History of Lipton Tea:Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by a grocer, Sir Thomas Lipton, in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1893, he established the Thomas J. Lipton Co., a tea packing company with its headquarters and factory in Hobo ken,...

 tea brand. The Institute conducts studies on the mental

Mind

The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...

 and physical

Human body

The human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...

 health benefits of tea. As well as research conducted directly by the Institute, it also funds and coordinates a large number of research projects at academic and research institutions around the world.

Background

The Lipton Institute of Tea is headquartered in Sharnbrook

Sharnbrook

Sharnbrook is a village and civil parish located in the Bedford Borough of Bedfordshire, England.The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred of Willey but was probably first developed in Saxon times. The oldest surviving building, St Peter's Church, is...

 in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, UK. A formal tea research base was established here by Unilever in 1967. The Institute also has research centres and regional representatives located in major tea growing regions (such as India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Kericho

Kericho

Kericho is a Kenyan County located to the South West of the country and lies within the highlands west of The Great Rift Valley. The capital of the district is Kericho town. The district home to the best of Kenyan Tea which is world famous for its brightness, attractive color, brisk flavor and...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, where Unilever owns tea plantations) and other key tea-drinking markets (including France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, and the USA). The Institute claims as its mission "to promote awareness and understanding of tea, from bush to cup". The Institute also participates in and organises scientific conferences.

Integral to the Institute’s research facilities is its operation of what it claims is the world’s most northerly tea plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 at its UK headquarters. This facility enables tea to be studied in a controlled environment, as here representative samples of tea from around the world are grown.

Research

The Institute invests in clinical trial

Clinical trial

Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...

s to support benefit claims, and its scientific understanding of the health benefits of tea. Many of the Institute’s findings have resulted in academic publication.

Recent work has focused on theanine

Theanine

Theanine , also gamma-glutamylethylamide or 5-N-ethyl-glutamine, is an amino acid and a glutamic acid analog commonly found in tea , primarily in green tea, and also in the basidiomycete mushroom Boletus badius and in guayusa. More specifically, this compound is called L-theanine, being the...

 and flavonoid

Flavonoid

Flavonoids , are a class of plant secondary metabolites....

 antioxidants, both of which occur naturally in tea and are claimed to have numerous health benefits. The Lipton Institute of Tea has also funded research on heart health and stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

, and in April 2009 published the results of research conducted with the University of L'Aquila

University of L'Aquila

The University of L'Aquila is a university located in L'Aquila, central Italy. It was founded in 1964 and is organized in nine faculties.Presents a scientific-technological character with many research groups. Its faculties occupy a high position between the Italian universities...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, about tea and cardiovascular health.