Appraising Herbal Tea as a Medicated and Nutritive drink

Abstract

The evaluation of herbals and herbal products has been geared up in (16th century). But for many herbs and herbal products scientific and inconsistent results are still lacking. The pharmacognostic, physico-chemical, qualitative, quantitative and biological evaluations are the important parameters for preparing monographs and standardize the individual herb and their products. The evaluation and standardization of several herbal products are reported in many of resources but exploring the Indian herbal tea with scientific data is rarely reported. The tea and herbal tea serves as prevalent and focal point of social gatherings. Herbal tea serves as a therapeutic and nutritional drink. Depending upon the chemical constituents present in the plant material use to prepare herbal tea makes it a medicated drink. The herbal tea can be further modified as per its pharmacological activity such as antidiabetic, antispasmodic, anti obesity, anti stress, anti ulcer, anti ageing, anti oxidants, coolant and many more. Thus, there is need for a detail review of the work done to evaluate physicochemical parameter, qualitative and quantitative screening of phytoconstituents present in several herbal teas available in the Indian market under the several brands.