A new study from researchers in the US found that black tea inhibits the body from absorbing glucose sugars, too much of which can cause type-2 diabetes.

The researchers, who brewed the tea under laboratory conditions, said tea could help control diabetes in humans.

“Our findings suggest that black tea and black tea pomace has potential for carbohydrate hydrolyzing enzyme inhibition and this activity depends on high molecular weight phenolic compounds,” the authors of the paper wrote.

The research, which was conducted by researchers at Framingham State University in the United States, builds on work done by Japanese scientists two decades earlier.

A 1995 study from the Hokkaido Pharmaceutical University School of Pharmacy found that black tea has what scientists call “anti-hyperglycaemic effects”.

The study found that rats had “significantly” reduced levels of blood glocuse and that black tea could both prevent and cure rats with diabetes.

“The study reveals that, like green tea, black tea also possesses antidiabetic activity,” the researchers found.