Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau

Lü, Houyuan; Zhang, Jianping; Yang, Yimin; Yang, Xiaoyan; Xu, Bin; Yang, Wuzhan; Tong, Tao; Shen, Jin; Shen, Caiming; Rao, Huiyun; Li, Xingguo; Lü, Hongliang; Fuller, Dorian Q.; Luo, Wei; Wang, Can; Xu, Daokui; Wu, Naiqin

doi:10.1038/srep18955

Cited by 105 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Chenopodium giganteum (album complex) cultivation may date back to ca. 2400-1900 bc in eastern China, and its grains and greens were collected from the wild as food for millennia (Anderson 2014;Lu et al 2016). Ethnographic sources from Europe and Russia also note the importance of the plant and its seeds as a wild food source.…”

Section: Archaeobotanical Chenopodium Seeds In Central Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dung burning in the archaeobotanical record of West Asia: where are we now?

Spengler

2018

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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In the early 1980s Naomi Miller changed the field of palaeoethnobotany; her research into whether the ancient seed eaters of southwest Asia were human or herbivore opened an ongoing debate over the impact that burning of animal dung had on the formation of archaeobotanical assemblages, and how researchers can differentiate between human and animal food remains. As the number of systematic archaeobotanical studies across West Asia and many other parts of the world increase, we are continually confronted with the question of the significance of dung burning. Herd animal dung is the dominant fuel source in many parts of West Asia today and the high densities of seeds of wild plants in archaeobotanical assemblages suggest that people were using dung as fuel across Inner Asia for millennia. Seed assemblages that represent herd animal dung are assisting scholars in understanding palaeoecology and herd animal diet in the past as well as human economy and pasturing practices. However, interpreting these assemblages is not always simple and there are predictable biases that need to be taken into account, notably an overrepresentation of endozoochoric seeds (seeds dispersed through animal ingestion). In West Asia, the most prominent of such seeds in dung assemblages are from the Amaranthaceae family, notably Chenopodium.

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Section: Archaeobotanical Chenopodium Seeds In Central Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Dung burning in the archaeobotanical record of West Asia: where are we now?

Spengler

2018

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…Tea [ Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze, 2 n = 30] is one of the most important and traditional economic crops in many developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and is consumed as a beverage by more than two-thirds of the world’s population 1 , 2 . Originally, tea was used as a medicinal herb in ancient China, and it was not until the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618–907) that it gained popularity as a beverage 3 , 4 . Since then, tea planting has expanded throughout the world, being notably associated with the influence of trading along the Silk and Tea Horse Roads 5 , 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population sequencing enhances understanding of tea plant evolution

et al. 2020

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Tea is an economically important plant characterized by a large genome, high heterozygosity, and high species diversity. In this study, we assemble a 3.26-Gb high-quality chromosome-scale genome for the ‘Longjing 43’ cultivar of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Genomic resequencing of 139 tea accessions from around the world is used to investigate the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of tea accessions. We find that hybridization has increased the heterozygosity and wide-ranging gene flow among tea populations with the spread of tea cultivation. Population genetic and transcriptomic analyses reveal that during domestication, selection for disease resistance and flavor in C. sinensis var. sinensis populations has been stronger than that in C. sinensis var. assamica populations. This study provides resources for marker-assisted breeding of tea and sets the foundation for further research on tea genetics and evolution.

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“…It has been consumed for thousands of years by humans with stories indicating the earliest consumption of boiled tea in China in the year 2737 BCE by the emperor Shen Nung, supposedly after tea leaves fell or blew into his boiling water [ 1 ]. Although this account may in fact be mythological, recent evidence demonstrates tea consumption in China as far back as 2,100 years ago during the Western Han Dynasty which ruled from 207 BCE to 9 BCE [ 3 , 4 ]. Prior to this recent discovery the first confirmed historical consumption of tea was 750 CE [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introduction With a Brief History Of Caffeine Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The clinical toxicology of caffeine: A review and case study

Willson¹

2018

Toxicology Reports

163

138

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Caffeine is a widely recognized psychostimulant compound with a long history of consumption by humans. While it has received a significant amount of attention there is still much to be learned with respect to its toxicology in humans, especially in cases of overdose. A review of the history of consumption and the clinical toxicology of caffeine including clinical features, pharmacokinetics, toxicokinetics, a thorough examination of mechanism of action and management/treatment strategies are undertaken. While higher (i.e., several grams) quantities of caffeine are known to cause toxicity and potentially lethality, cases of mainly younger individuals who have experienced severe side effects and death despite consuming doses not otherwise known to cause such harm is troubling and deserves further study. An attempted case reconstruction is performed in an effort to shed light on this issue with a focus on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of caffeine.

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Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau

Cited by 105 publications

References 23 publications

Dung burning in the archaeobotanical record of West Asia: where are we now?

Dung burning in the archaeobotanical record of West Asia: where are we now?

Population sequencing enhances understanding of tea plant evolution

The clinical toxicology of caffeine: A review and case study

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