Abstract
This paper is a review of local plants used in water infusions as aromatic and refreshing hot beverages (recreational tea) consumed in food-related settings in Europe, and not for specific medicinal purposes. The reviewed 29 areas are located across Europe, covering the post-Soviet countries, eastern and Mediterranean Europe. Altogether, 142 taxa belonging to 99 genera and 40 families were reported. The most important families for making herbal tea in all research areas were Lamiaceae and Asteraceae, while Rosaceae was popular only in eastern and central Europe. With regards to botanical genera, the dominant taxa included Mentha, Tilia, Thymus, Origanum, Rubus and Matricaria. The clear favorite was Origanum vulgare L., mentioned in 61% of the regions. Regionally, other important taxa included Rubus idaeus L. in eastern Europe, Chamaemelum nobile (L.) All. in southern Europe and Rosa canina L. in central Europe. Future research on the pharmacological, nutritional and chemical properties of the plants most frequently used in the tea-making process is essential to ensure their safety and appropriateness for daily consumption. Moreover, regional studies dedicated to the study of local plants used for making recreational tea are important to improve our understanding of their selection criteria, cultural importance and perceived properties in Europe and abroad.
Highlights
The English term “tea” denotes the infusion made of the leaves of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, it refers in colloquial language to the wide variety of locally grown herbs used in different regions of the world for recreational tea.In this article, we use recreational tea as a technical term for an infusion made of leaves or flowers of taxaHistorically, some people have shown a preference for recreational tea they could afford the “real thing”
Here, we have divided our assessment of the data into sections based on taxonomic level, regional differences and similarities, and considerations concerning perceived health value of the most important flora used in the recreational tea context
Species The majority of the top 10 species are well known in European folk medicine for their digestive properties, which is one of the reasons cited for the selection of plants for teas to accompany meals [6,7]
Summary
The English term “tea” denotes the infusion made of the leaves of Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, it refers in colloquial language to the wide variety of locally grown herbs used in different regions of the world for recreational tea. Information concerning the use of local plants for making recreational herbal teas has typically been collected as ancillary data in ethnobotanical or ethnographic field studies that are otherwise focused on the documentation of traditional knowledge and use of medicinal species, edible plants, or other general uses of plants. All contemporary conducted field studies discussed in the article had at least one of the article’s authors as a participant and special effort was made to obtain a high level of detail concerning the regional characteristics and the research methods used for the various studies, in some cases, some information was missing To improve our understanding of regional importance of the most popular taxa, the use-reports [45], when available, were included along with the number of regions where the plants were used in the context of recreational teas. For detailed list on the taxa used in every region see [Additional file 1]
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