ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health and Nutrition
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1588368
A Population-based Study on Safety and Health of Drinking Litsea Coreana Tea (Hawk Tea)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
- 2Chongqing University of Chinese Medicine, Chongqing, China
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Background: A herbal tea of leaves and stems of Litsea coreana, named Hawk tea locally, has been traditionally consumed in some places in southwestern China. However, there is no human based evidence about the safety and health effects of drinking hawk tea. This study aims to illustrate possible healthy effects of consuming hawk tea in a population with a habit of drinking hawk tea in Chongqing city.Methods: A hawk tea producing area located in Chongqing city was selected as the study setting, and residents were randomly designated. Self-designed questionnaires were administered to collect data, including basic information, the behaviours of consumption of hawk tea, and various health information.Results: Among the 4,363 respondents, 2,278 (52.2%) drank tea more 1 time per month and 957 (42.0%) were heavy drinkers. Among 2,278 Hawk tea drinkers, 62 reported various symptoms after drinking, and logistic regression showed no relationship between the symptoms reported and the characteristics of consumption (duration, frequency, and volume) (p> 0.05). In addition, heavy hawk tea drinkers had a lower risk of hyperlipidaemia than light hawk tea drinkers (p<0.001, 95% odds ratio=0.26).Conclusions: With the long history of consumption in the population and the effects on health as were shown in this study, hawk tea poses no detectable health risks to consumers and shows some benefit to metabolism of lipids. It can be recognised and recommended as a safe and healthy herbalObjectives: To assess the safety and health benefits of Litsea coreana tea (locally known as hawk tea) in a population that consumes traditional tea.
Keywords: Hawk tea, Food Safety, Population survey, Lipid Metabolism, Cross-sectional study
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Pu, Huang, Huang, Yu, Cao and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Weiguo Cao, Chongqing University of Chinese Medicine, Chongqing, China
Yong Zhang, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.