WebSafe 3.7pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
|
|
🏠
Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jan 7:6:18955.
doi: 10.1038/srep18955.

Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau

Houyuan Lu  1   2 , Jianping Zhang  1   2 , Yimin Yang  3 , Xiaoyan Yang  4 , Baiqing Xu  2   5 , Wuzhan Yang  6 , Tao Tong  7 , Shubo Jin  8 , Caiming Shen  9 , Huiyun Rao  3 , Xingguo Li  10 , Hongliang Lu  11 , Dorian Q Fuller  12 , Luo Wang  1 , Can Wang  1 , Deke Xu  1   2 , Naiqin Wu  1   2
Affiliations

Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau

Houyuan Lu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Phytoliths and biomolecular components extracted from ancient plant remains from Chang'an (Xi'an, the city where the Silk Road begins) and Ngari (Ali) in western Tibet, China, show that the tea was grown 2100 years ago to cater for the drinking habits of the Western Han Dynasty (207BCE-9CE), and then carried toward central Asia by ca.200CE, several hundred years earlier than previously recorded. The earliest physical evidence of tea from both the Chang'an and Ngari regions suggests that a branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau, was established by the second to third century CE.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Map and photographs of early tea found in China.
(a) Red dots show the location of the Han Yangling Mausoleum in Chang’an and Gurgyam Cemetery in Ngari, with orange lines indicating the routes of the Silk Road. (b) Plan of the Han Yangling Mausoleum and (c) the outer burial pit DK15; the brown material in pit DK15 constitutes plant remains including crops. (d) Sample DK15-1 taken from plant remains found in Pit DK15. (e) Morphological comparison between plant leaves from DK15-1 (e1, 2, 3) and modern green tea buds (e4, 5). (f) Sample XZ-1 taken from Gurgyam Cemetery plant remains. The firgure1a was generated using DIVA-GIS 7.5 (http://www.diva-gis.org/) and Microsoft PowerPoint 2011. The photos in Fig. 1c–f were taken by Houyuan Lu.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Location of the Gurgyam Cemetery and unearthed relics.
(a) Location of the first tomb (below arrow). (b) The form of the first tomb. (c) Silk pieces with the woven Chinese characters “Wang Hou” (kings and princes). (d) Thick-walled, roughly-modeled ceramic beakers. (e) Wooden fragments. (f) Copper-alloy vessel. (g) Golden mask. The photos in Fig. 2a,d–g were taken by Houyuan Lu, and the photos in Fig. 2b,c were taken by Tao Tong.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Extracted ion chromatograms and exact mass spectra for theanine from SRM theanine and archeological samples.
(a) Ion chromatogram of SRM theanine at a 1.54 min retention time. (b) Exact mass spectra at m/z 175.1082 ([M + H] + ) for SRM theanine [γ-glutamylethylamide]. (c) Extracted ion chromatogram of Sample DK15-1, uniform with SRM theanine. (d) Exact mass spectra of theanine for Sample DK15-1. (e) Extracted ion chromatogram of Sample XZ-1, indicating theanine. (f) Exact mass spectrometry of theanine for Sample XZ-1.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Extracted ion chromatograms and exact mass spectra for caffeine from modern tea samples and archeological samples.
(a) Ion chromatogram for caffeine for a modern tea sample at a 3.813 min retention time, using GC/MS. (b) Mass spectra of caffeine [1,3,7-trimethylxanthine] for a modern tea sample, using GC/MS. (c) Ion chromatogram of Sample DK15-1, uniform with caffeine, and using GC/MS. (d) Mass spectra of caffeine for Sample DK15-1, using GC/MS. (e) Exact mass spectra of caffeine for Sample DK15-1, using UPLC/MS. (f) Exact mass spectra of caffeine for Sample XZ-1, using UPLC/MS.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Photographs illustrating discrimination of contemporary and prehistoric tea calcium phytoliths.
(a) Calcium phytoliths from Sample XZ-1, compared with (d) modern regular crack-type calcium phytoliths from trichome bases of C. sinensis. (b) Calcium phytoliths from Sample DK15-1, compared with (e) modern druse-type calcium phytoliths from C. sinensis. (c) Calcium phytoliths from Sample DK15-1, compared with (f) modern trichome type calcium phytoliths from C. sinensis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Karak T. & Bhagat R. M. Trace elements in tea leaves, made tea and tea infusion: A review. Food Research International 43, 2234–2252, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2010.08.010 (2010). - DOI
    1. Harbowy M. E., Balentine D. A., Davies A. P. & Cai Y. Tea chemistry. Critical reviews in plant sciences 16, 415–480 (1997).
    1. Guang D. X. Research on the Sichuan Manor’s Commodity Trade Economy of the Mid- Former Han Dynasty, based on Wang Pao’s “Tong Yue”. Agricultural History of China 4, 35 (2010).
    1. Schafer E. Food In Chinese Culture: Anthropological And Historical Perspectives. 85–140 (Yale University Pres, 1977).
    1. Fan W., Gong D., Yao Z. & Li D. Identification analysis of carbonized suspected tea from Luan tomb in the northern song dynasty Agricultural archaeology 2, 212–217 (2012).

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources