Tea is the most common drink served nearly every day to a vast majority of people in the world.
Tea, more precisely the aqueous extract of tea leaves, has been shown to have a variety of biological activities such as antioxidant, antiviral and antibacterial activities. These activities of tea extract are attributable to the presence of catechins, polyphenol compounds. We have investigated the antibacterial activity of tea catechins and found that catechins have marked antimicrobial activity against a variety of microorganisms, such as Vibrio cholerae , Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus and even fungi like Trichophyton mentagrophytes . In the present study, we investigated the possible antibacterial activity of tea catechins against Helicobacter pylori , which is recognized as a causative agent of gastric ulcers as well as stomach cancer. Epidemiological studies suggest that people who drink tea every day have a relatively low incidence of ulcers.