Puer tea was produced in Yunnan, consumed mainly in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Tibet, but became a fad in Taiwan during mid-1990s, which later spread back to Hong Kong, GuangDong, Yunnan, the entire China, and also to ...Puer tea was produced in Yunnan, consumed mainly in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Tibet, but became a fad in Taiwan during mid-1990s, which later spread back to Hong Kong, GuangDong, Yunnan, the entire China, and also to Korea, Japan and Southeast Aisa. This paper analyzes how and why Taiwan, which knew very little of Puer tea before 1990s, has played such an important role in the globalization of Puer tea. I argue that it＇s not only the historical contingencies, especially Hong Kong＇s returning to China in 1997, that gave Taiwan the opportunity to import aged Puer tea that had stocked in Hong Kong for years; more importantly it was Taiwan＇s sophisticated tea tasting culture that provided the fertile ground for the development of a taste considered valuable and hence a fad for aged Puer. This taste of aging tea has since come to be the foundation of Puer tea market as the value of Puer has become to be evaluated on the degree of aging and Puer has been traded as though futures or stocks, resulting in the craze for this once little-known commodity and the globalization of its consumption. The case of Puer tea suggests that as we follow Appadurai＇s suggestion and pay attention to five cultural flows--ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes--when studying globalization, we may benefit also from focusing on the ＂sense-scape,＂ or the intense cultural flow of sensory information around the world.展开更多
The present study was designed to determine the effects of Puer tea and green tea on blood glucose level. Male BALB/c mice were administered green tea extract(GTE) or Puer tea extract(PTE), either intragastrically or ...The present study was designed to determine the effects of Puer tea and green tea on blood glucose level. Male BALB/c mice were administered green tea extract(GTE) or Puer tea extract(PTE), either intragastrically or in their drinking water. The major components of these teas are epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG) and caffeine, respectively. Blood glucose measurement results showed that mice fed intragastrically or mice that drank GTE, PTE or caffeine showed significantly lower blood glucose levels compared to the control group. However, EGCG exhibited no influence on the blood glucose levels. When caffeine was eliminated from the GTE and PTE, the effect on the blood glucose levels was abolished, but the effect was recovered when caffeine was re-introduced into the extracts. Evaluation of hematological and biochemical indices at the time of the greatest caffeine-induced decrease in blood glucose levels showed that the effect of caffeine was specific. Microarray analyses were performed in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and mature adipocytes treated with 0.1 mg·m L-1 caffeine to identify factors that might be involved in the mechanisms underlying these effects. The results showed that few genes were changed after caffeine treatment in adipocytes, and of them only phospholipid transfer protein(PLTP) may be ralated to blood glucose. In conclusion, this study indicates that caffeine may be the key constituent of tea that decreases blood glucose levels, and it may be used to treat type 2 diabetes.展开更多
文摘Puer tea was produced in Yunnan, consumed mainly in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Tibet, but became a fad in Taiwan during mid-1990s, which later spread back to Hong Kong, GuangDong, Yunnan, the entire China, and also to Korea, Japan and Southeast Aisa. This paper analyzes how and why Taiwan, which knew very little of Puer tea before 1990s, has played such an important role in the globalization of Puer tea. I argue that it＇s not only the historical contingencies, especially Hong Kong＇s returning to China in 1997, that gave Taiwan the opportunity to import aged Puer tea that had stocked in Hong Kong for years; more importantly it was Taiwan＇s sophisticated tea tasting culture that provided the fertile ground for the development of a taste considered valuable and hence a fad for aged Puer. This taste of aging tea has since come to be the foundation of Puer tea market as the value of Puer has become to be evaluated on the degree of aging and Puer has been traded as though futures or stocks, resulting in the craze for this once little-known commodity and the globalization of its consumption. The case of Puer tea suggests that as we follow Appadurai＇s suggestion and pay attention to five cultural flows--ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes and ideoscapes--when studying globalization, we may benefit also from focusing on the ＂sense-scape,＂ or the intense cultural flow of sensory information around the world.
文摘The present study was designed to determine the effects of Puer tea and green tea on blood glucose level. Male BALB/c mice were administered green tea extract(GTE) or Puer tea extract(PTE), either intragastrically or in their drinking water. The major components of these teas are epigallocatechin gallate(EGCG) and caffeine, respectively. Blood glucose measurement results showed that mice fed intragastrically or mice that drank GTE, PTE or caffeine showed significantly lower blood glucose levels compared to the control group. However, EGCG exhibited no influence on the blood glucose levels. When caffeine was eliminated from the GTE and PTE, the effect on the blood glucose levels was abolished, but the effect was recovered when caffeine was re-introduced into the extracts. Evaluation of hematological and biochemical indices at the time of the greatest caffeine-induced decrease in blood glucose levels showed that the effect of caffeine was specific. Microarray analyses were performed in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes and mature adipocytes treated with 0.1 mg·m L-1 caffeine to identify factors that might be involved in the mechanisms underlying these effects. The results showed that few genes were changed after caffeine treatment in adipocytes, and of them only phospholipid transfer protein(PLTP) may be ralated to blood glucose. In conclusion, this study indicates that caffeine may be the key constituent of tea that decreases blood glucose levels, and it may be used to treat type 2 diabetes.
