Lanka's hidden pot of gold.... green tea

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Sri Lanka's hidden pot of gold is green tea, Dr. Ranil de Silva, Department of Anatomy, University of Sri Jayawardenapura said.

It is similar to Middle East countries having oil and unfortunately tea exporters and others in the tea industry do not know to differentiate between tea grown here and other countries, he said.

"No one in the world has carried out an in depth research on Sri Lankan green tea so far", he told the Daily News.

The way some people promote Sri Lankan tea abroad is wrong and funny. Green tea grown in Sri Lanka has the ability to fight many diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson and also strokes. I tested Sri Lankan green tea obtained from supermarkets and higher health effects may be achieved if we can use modern technology to produce our green tea," he said.

Dr. de Silva said green tea should be promoted with the support of the Government and make it one of the main income generating avenues for the country. "One person gets a stroke every five second and 20 million suffer from strokes annually while five million die from strokes every year. There are 5.2 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer disease and their health budget is US$ 148 billion.

Another 500,000 Americans suffer from Parkinson disease and the US spend $ 10 billion for their health budget. This why Sri Lanka holds this pot of gold. The research conducted by me costs US $ 80,000 but no local tea exporter or any other person and organisation has come forward to assist me," added.