Tea industry moots R&D to raise utility

Against the backdrop of an increasing financial pressure on the tea industry due to rise in cost of production, which even threatens to make cultivation of tea non-profitable in the long run, the industry is considering to undertake research and development to diversify the use of tea.

 Top on the list of choices are use of tea in cosmetic products and also as an antibiotic, and extraction of tea oil for varied usages.

 In Western countries, new applications of tea formulations are now used as health product and in cosmetic application in a limited way. In these new applications, more then the tea leaf, tea bushes, branches and trunk of the tree are widely used, said Gautam Prasad Baroowah, former vice president of Williamson Magor, India.

 Tea is being used in cosmetic products, like shampoo, skin care products, shaving cream, for its antioxidant quality.

 “Plantation alone would not be able to make Assam entrepreneurs world class unless backed by modern marketing and research for diversified product lines. Our entrepreneurs have to look different as cost of production was fast rising.”

 Moreover, Baroowah said that it was recently established that oil from tea tree, which is akin to our tea bushes and found in countries like China, Australia and sub-Saharan Africa, is an effective antibiotic and it can help human being to cure skin problems like acne, herpes, sun burns and blisters.

 “This is high time that our scientific laboratories experimented whether tea bushes of Assam could also produce similar oil or not,” Baroowah said.

 Baroowah was speaking at a North-East NRI meet, organised by an association called Friends of Assam and Seven Sisters (FASS), in association with the government of Assam.

 Baroowah said that some tea entrepreneurs from south India had tried to develop tea oil from old bushes but more research was needed to develop it.