Study of saprophytic fungus contamination levels of tea consumed in Babol and its implications on health

Background and The herbal tea is one of the most common hot beverages in the world. Tea poisoning as a result of saprophytic fungus contamination can cause many different diseases among human. This research was aimed at defining saprophytic fungus contamination rate of all kinds of tea which are being consumed in Babol, northern Iran. This research was carried out on 100 samples of tea using descriptive – analytical method. The samples were gathered from different regions of the city including both homes and shops. The properties of tea are registered in a table. To define the level of the contamination, 20 pieces of each tea sample were cultivated in Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (S) fields The grown fungus around tea pieces were recognized by an ordinary laboratory method, during daily observations of plates. The rate of contamination was measured based on the total amount of colony per100 mg of dry tea leaves. (P Value ≤ 0/05). All of the 100 cultivated tea samples were contaminated. The samples were classified into three groups of packed, unpacked and bagged tea, respectively. The maximum contamination rate was seen in bagged group. Statistical differences between groups were significant. (P< 0.001 (The most identified fungus were as follow: Aspergillus Niger, penisillium A. flavus, Mucur spp. Among tea samples which were collected from homes and shops, home samples were more polluted than shop samples, but there was not any significant difference (P=0.33). The unpacked tea samples were less polluted than firm packed tea samples but the difference was not significant (P=0.27). The result of this study indicates that the consuming tea in Babol is highly contaminated by saprophytic fungus which can be a serious threat because of the popularity of tea as a hot beverage. And so an accurate control over all various steps of harvesting, processing and distributing of tea is necessary and recommended.