Drinking black tea can also eliminate bad breath! Previously, everyone thought that only green tea could eliminate bad breath. However, according to research by Professor Luhsi Sun of the Food Science and Technology Institute at Taiwan University, doubling the concentration of black tea also makes the theaflavins in it effective at eliminating bad breath, giving people who don't like green tea a new choice.
Luhsi Sun stated that the causes of bad breath include protein in food, added spices, or diseases of the oral or respiratory organs. Previously, Japanese scholars had discovered that catechins in green tea have a very good effect on eliminating bad breath, even better than commonly used copper chlorophyll.
As Taiwan has many types of tea, including partially fermented teas like Pouchong and Oolong, as well as fully fermented black tea, Luhsi Sun's research investigated the bad breath-eliminating effects of teas with different fermentation levels.
Luhsi Sun pointed out that this research on the bad breath-eliminating effect evaluated the samples' ability to remove methyl mercaptan (a representative component of bad breath). The results showed that black tea, which contains very little catechin, also has a remarkably excellent deodorizing effect. Further tests revealed that this is mainly due to the theaflavins in black tea.
Luhsi Sun emphasized that current research still shows that catechins in green tea are the most effective for eliminating bad breath. If people don't like green tea, they can use black tea instead. However, black tea needs to be consumed at a higher dose to be effective, meaning the concentration of the black tea must be twice that of green tea to eliminate annoying bad breath.