Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
February,  1903.  , 
Tea. 
89 
MULDER'S  ANALYSIS. 
Black  tea,  per  cent.  Green  tea,  per  cent. 
Bssential  oil  
o-6o 
0-79 
1-84 
2'22  " 
Wax  
.   .   .     o*oo  " 
0-28 
2'22  " 
.  .  .  7-28 
8-56  " 
12-88 
I7-80  " 
Theine  
.  .  .  0-46 
0-43  " 
.  .  .   21-36  » 
22 -8o  " 
Coloring  substances    .  .  . 
.  .  .  19-19 
23-60  " 
.   ,  2-80 
3-00  " 
•  •  •   28-33  " 
I7-80 
Ash  .  . 
•  •  •     5-24  " 
5-56  " 
Blythe  considers  the  above  trustworthy  in  all  except  the  percent- 
age of  theine.  Other  analysts  have  uniformly  found  a  higher  per- 
centage. Dragendoff  in  three  analyses  of  green  tea  found  the  theine 
to  be  1 -6 1,  1-66  and  1*82  per  cent.  In  six  analyses  of  black  tea  the 
theine  varied  from  1-36  per  cent,  to  2-14  per  cent.  In  three  high- 
grade  flower  teas  consisting  of  young  leaves  without  buds  he  found 
the  percentages  to  be  2-02,  2-68  and  3  09. 
Tea  does  not  class  as  a  food  but  as  a  food  adjunct.  Its  chief  food- 
value  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  retards  waste  of  tissue.  But  the  leaves 
are  rich  in  nitrogenous  compounds,  and  when  the  beverage  is  pre- 
pared in  such  a  way  as  to  make  these  compounds  available,  tea  may 
be  classed  as  a  true  food.  As  bearing  upon  the  food-value  the  fol- 
lowing is  quoted  from  Chambers'  Encyclopedia :  "  The  nitrogenous 
compound  allied  to  caseine  or  gluten  constitutes  about  15  per  cent, 
of  the  weight  ot  the  leaf.  As  hot  water  extracts  very  little  of  this 
substance,  a  large  quantity  of  this  nutritious  matter,  which  forms 
about  28  per  cent,  of  the  dried  spent  leaves,  is  thrown  away. 
Much  of  it  might  be  dissolved  if  a  little  carbonate  ot  soda  were 
added  to  the  boiling  water  with  which  the  tea  is  made;  and  in 
the  brick  tea  (the  refuse  and  decayed  leaves  and  twigs  pressed 
into  molds)  used  by  the  Tartars,  most  of  this  substance  is  utilized' 
They  reduce  the  tea  to  powder,  and  boil  it  with  the  alkaline  water 
of  the  Steppes,  to  which  salt  and  fat  have  been  added.  Of  this 
decoction  they  drink  from  twenty  to  forty  cups  a  day,  mixing  it 
first  with  milk,  butter  and  a  little  roasted  meal.  But  without  the 
meal,  mixed  only  with  a  little  milk,  they  can  subsist  for  weeks  on  this 
thin  fluid  food."    A  Chinese  author  tells  not  only  the  kind  of  water 
