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Researchers may have gotten to the root of tea’s soothing effect.
The quality of a cup of chai can be enriched by modifying the microbial community that populates the plant’s roots, researchers report February 15 in Current Biology. The secret is to inoculate roots with bacteria that boost the synthesis of the amino acid theanine.
There’s something in tea that helps us wind down, says Zhenbiao Yang, a plant cell biologist at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology in China. Some studies suggest that the “chemical that helps you sleep is theanine,” he says. What’s more, theanine infuses tea with umami, a taste often described a savoriness, he says.
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