Pu'er Tea is a natural free-radical scavenger with notable effects in antioxidant activity, anti-aging, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. As the public brand “Xianyang Pu'er Tea” gains increasing recognition, the Health benefits of Pu'er tea products are becoming more valued by consumers. Recently, we have been sharing excerpts from “Speaking of Pu'er Tea,” written by Liu Xiang, Vice President of the Shaanxi Tea Circulation Association and member of the Association's Expert Committee. This book, published by World Books Publishing and selected as one of the top ten tea books by the Tea Industry Media Alliance, focuses on the interpretation of Pu'er tea's health benefits to help consumers gain a more comprehensive understanding of Pu'er tea.

The More Golden Flowers in Pu'er Tea, the Better

To ensure the safety of residents' diet, following the procedures and methods for food safety toxicology evaluation in the People's Republic of China, researchers Liu Ziyin, Wang Yuanliang, Xu Aiqing, et al., from Hunan Agricultural University conducted acute oral toxicity tests, bone marrow polychromatic erythrocyte micronucleus tests, sperm deformity tests, 30-day feeding trials, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) tests on mice. These tests were used to comprehensively evaluate the food safety of the “Golden Flower” fungus. The results were published in the Journal of Agricultural Products Processing (Academic Edition) in Issue 07, 2011.

The study adopted the internationally recognized “LD50 test” procedure. For substances considered non-toxic, the requirement is that the maximum lethal dose fed orally to mice is 10,000 mg/kg body weight, which translates to 10 grams per kilogram of body weight. According to the principles of acute toxicity classification, the Golden Flower fungus belongs to the category of absolutely non-toxic substances.

According to the conversion rules for equivalent doses between humans and mice, the daily maximum intake for humans should be 0.3% to 1% of the LD50 test dose, or 1% of body weight.

Based on an average human body weight of 70 kg, the daily maximum intake of Golden Flower fungus would be approximately 7 grams. Calculating based on the specific gravity of Golden Flower fungus spores being around 0.3, the daily maximum intake of Golden Flower fungus spores could fill about 35 capsules.

Through physical separation, the research team extracted Golden Flower spore powder from traditional Pu'er brick tea, which was about 0.5% of the tea's weight. Based on this, the daily maximum intake of Golden Flower spores would be equivalent to the content in about 1.4 kilograms of Pu'er brick tea.

With a daily tea consumption of 14 grams, the intake of Golden Flower fungus nutrients through drinking Pu'er tea would only be 1% of the upper limit. Therefore, the more Golden Flower fungus in Pu'er tea, the better.

The national standards for Pu'er tea do not specify an upper limit for the content of Golden Flower fungus (CFU).

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