ISLAMABAD: The tea imports into the country witnessed an increase of 9.04 percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal year as against the corresponding period of last year.
The tea imports into the country during July-April (2017-18) were recorded at $492.982 million against the imports of $452.112 million during July-April (2016-17), according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
In terms of quantity, the tea imports, however, witnessed a negative growth of 4.32 percent by declining from imports of 170,987 metric tons last year to 163,598 metric tons during the current fiscal year, the data revealed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the overall food imports into the country during the period under review witnessed an increase of 2.32 percent.
The food imports during the first ten months of the current fiscal year were recorded at $5,216 million against the imports of $5,098 million, according to PBS data.
Meanwhile, on year-on-year basis, the tea imports into the country during the month of April increased by 2.89 percent as compared to the same month of the last year.
The tea imports into the country during April 2018 were recorded at $42.063 million against the imports of $40.882 million in April 2017.
However, on the month-on-month basis, the tea imports into the country witnessed a negative growth of 20.45 percent in April 2018 when compared to the imports of $52.878 million in March 2018, the PBS data added.
Pieces published earlier:
i) Besides playing a role in weight loss and boosting immunity, green tea may also help prevent deaths due heart attacks and strokes caused by atherosclerosis – a condition of narrowed artery walls due to fat build-up, claims a study. According to the researchers, a compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), found in green tea, breaks up and dissolves potentially dangerous protein plaques found in the blood vessels. “The health benefits of green tea have been widely promoted and it has been known for some time that EGCG can alter the structures of amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease,” said David Middleton, Professor at Britain’s Lancaster University. “Our results show that this intriguing compound might also be effective against the types of plaques which can cause heart attacks and strokes,” he added.
“By engineering the molecule slightly, we might be able to make new medicines to treat heart attack and stroke,” said Jeremy Pearson Professor and Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation. The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, showed that EGCG binds to the amyloid fibers of a protein called apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA-1), which converts the fibers to smaller soluble molecules that are less likely to be damaging to blood vessels. The team is now working on finding ways of introducing effective amounts of EGCG into the bloodstream without it being necessary to drink large and potentially harmful quantities of green tea. (2nd of June, 2018)
ii) Consumption of green tea has long been associated with myriad health-related boons. It can control the body mass and keep you refresh. Now, a new research has found out naturally active component in green tea known as Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate (EGCG). It could ease High-Fat And High-Fructose (HFFD)-induced insulin resistance and cognitive impairment. Researcher Xuebo Liu from the College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University maintained that the said tea is the second most consumed beverage throughout the globe following water, which is grown in around 30 states.
Moreover, the prehistoric custom of ingesting green tea could be a more suitable substitute to medicine so as to contain obesity, insulin resistance, and memory impairment at the same time. This experiment has been conducted on mice. They have been divided into three groups. One group has been given standard diet, the other has been fed an HFFD diet and the third one consumed 2 grams of EGCG per liter water along with HFFD diet for 16 weeks. Their up shots demonstrated that those, who ingested HFFD+EGCG diet, have been reported with improved HFFD-induced memory impairment as compared to the rest. They have reported their findings in the paper published online in the journal The FASEB. (2nd day of August 2017)
