US Patents Position Dr. Lee's TeaForHealth™
as "The Green Tea for Health Protection"

August 23, 2004 - Trumbull, Conn. - The US Patent and Trademark Office published the first design patent for an oxygen-exclusion tea steeper, patent no. D494,417, granted to Sin Hang Lee, M.D., on August 17, 2004. An individual tea brewing set is illustrated. The lid for the 13 oz. porcelain tea steeper is equipped with a sunken bottom to expel the free air, which otherwise would be trapped in the dead space under the lid during tea steeping. A reservoir in the base is provided for the overflowing hot water displaced when the lid is put on to cover the tea steeper filled with boiling hot water to the rim. Its complementary utility patent, "Anaerobic Tea Steeper and Method of Use," is scheduled to be published momentarily.

Dr. Lee, a cancer pathologist, explained why humans do not get the same health benefits of drinking green tea as expected on the basis of animal research. After reviewing the "totality of the publicly available scientific evidence", he concluded that humans should drink the kind of green tea which the scientists prepare for and feed to their laboratory mice in order to get the same health benefits of green tea that are observed in the mice.

He said that to suppress cancer growth in experimental animals high-antioxidant green tea leaves are extracted with deionized hot water shielded from atmospheric oxygen in an Erlenmeyer flask. The final tea drinks are standardized to the "typical" level for green tea as defined by the National Cancer Institute, which means they contain 710 μg/ml (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Then the green tea is administered as the only daily fluid intake in large doses to the mice.

Humans need to drink properly prepared high quality green tea in sufficient quantity to maximize its health benefits. The Taoists learned that about 2,500 years ago. Now we know tea antioxidants are short-lived in the human body. "Taking one pill a day is not going to work," said Dr. Lee.

The ancient Chinese invented porcelain, the non-metallic utensils now known as china. China was used primarily for preparing and serving tea. Even a trace of iron in the hot tea drinks can cause significant degradation of tea antioxidants in the presence of oxygen, as demonstrated by recent scientific research. Since the antioxidants in tea leaves must be extracted with hot water, it is important to avoid oxygen, oxidizing agents and iron in tea preparations." Dr. Lee's patent illustrates this anaerobic tea extraction technology.

Emphasizing the need to consume a sufficient amount of high-antioxidant tea regularly to maintain health, Dr. Lee has also filed a petition to the FDA for a qualified green tea health claim to introduce the uniqueness of Dr. Lee's TeaForHealth™ product line. It is high-antioxidant green tea, including its Ready-To-Drink (RTD) green tea inabottle™. The proposed claim is that "Daily consumption of 40 ounces of typical green tea containing 710 μg/ml natural (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) may reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer." The petition is published on the FDA website under docket no. 2004Q-0083 for public comments since March 18, 2004. The final decision is to be announced on Oct. 29, 2004.

Fleminger, Inc. the proprietor of Dr. Lee's TeaForHealth™, is selecting qualified regional distributors for its certified high-antioxidant green tea for health protection.

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