Anti-Stress Effect of Oolong Tea in Women Loaded with Vigil

Abstract

The preventive effect of oolong tea on vigil stress was investigated in 55 Chinese women. The subjects received 4 servings of tea bag daily, the tea bags in each containing 2 g dry weight of oolong tea or barley tea, or else water, for a period of one week. The results of a questionnaire indicated that ingestion of oolong tea improved symptoms of stress such as stiffness of the shoulders, fatigue of the eyes and headaches, as well as ameliorated the stress-induced increase in the number of errors in calculation tasks compared with controls. In addition, plasma cortisol levels were significantly lower in the oolong tea group (17.84 ± 2.46 µg/dl) than in the barley tea group (21.33 ± 6.47 µg /dl) or water group (22.95 ± 6.98 µg/dl). Ingestion of oolong tea significantly alleviated the vigil stress-induced increase in plasma lipid peroxide levels, which may have been related to the stress-relieving effects of caffeine or antioxidant properties of polyphenols contained in the tea. These findings suggested that oolong tea has anti-stress effect, with no adverse effects on appetite or physical fitness.

Bioactivities of Chicken Essence

“…Taketani and others (1998) reported that 2 dynamic hormones, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), had dual‐direction regulation on glucose and lipid metabolisms, and at the same time controlled the occurrence of fatigue. Previously, our laboratory observed that blood cortisol level was significantly increased in 55 healthy adults who worked all night (Kurihara and others 2003), while Nagai and others (1996) confirmed that chicken essence reduced cortisol level after stress load. Recently, we found that restraint stress significantly reduced blood insulin level and decreased hepatic glycogen synthesis in mice.…”

The effect of diet components on the level of cortisol

“…Drinking strong infusions of turquoise oolong tea can result in a significant decrease in cortisol levels [72]. Similar effects have infusions of green coffee [73].…”

The Anti-stress Effects of Sarcandra glabra Extract on Restraint-Evoked Immunocompromise

“…21) This assay measures the effectiveness of antioxidant components in splenocytes and SGE, by inhibiting the decline of FL fluorescence induced by a peroxyl radical generator, AAPH. Automated ORAC assay was carried out on a Labsystems Fluoroskan Ascent plate reader (Helsinki, Finland) with fluorescent filters (Infinite TM F200, excitation wavelength, 485 nm; emission wavelength, 527 nm).…”