Lucky for the world, Shen Nung shared his discovery, and today we still enjoy black, green, or oolong tea made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Even good old iced tea-a staple for many Americans-is made from the same source. However, the Camellia sinensis is only one plant. This world provides an almost endless variety of plants, and many of them can be used to brew tea. Though herbal teas (which refers to all teas not made from Camellia sinensis) have not been as popular as black tea in this country, the gap may be narrowing as more Americans turn to alternative forms of medicine and discover that herbal teas not only taste good but can also offer positive benefits to their health.

Several studies conducted over the past few years have focused mainly on the healthful benefits of black and green tea, which contain polyphenols, potent antioxidants that appear to help protect against major diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Herbal teas may lack such scientific support-as do herbal supplements in general-but they do have the advantage of a tradition of use going back thousands of years. In fact, there is archaeological evidence that herbs were used for healing in Mesopotamia some 6,000 years ago. The East Indian healing philosophy known as Ayurveda ("science of life') has also utilized herbs for thousands of years. (Some Ayurvedic medical volumes are more than 3,000 years old and are still used today as textbooks.) In the West, Native Americans passed on their knowledge of healing herbs to the pioneers. In fact, before the 20th century, most people around the world depended on herbs for their medicines.' In Germany today, more than 80 percent of physicians still regularly prescribe plant medicines to patients.