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Ultra-expensive tea cultivated in panda feces

2012-01-16 13:57 Global Times     Web Editor: Xu Aqing comment

Sichuan University professor An Yanshi has been awarded a patent for a tea that uses panda feces as fertilizer. Pandas only digest about 30 percent of the bamboo they eat, and bamboo, similar to green tea, contains a cancer preventative. So, considering about 70 percent of bamboo is left in the panda excrement used to fertilize the tea, the tea is supposed to provide cancer preventative effects. The tea, due to using excrement from a rare animal, could cost upwards of $69,000 per kilogram.

Senior engineer at the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Pandas Tang Chunxiang said that while it is feasible to use panda excrement as fertilizer for tea, there aren't any studies focusing on the anti-cancer properties of tea grown in such a fashion. On top of that, Tang also said that there is no way to estimate a price of such a product, due to not knowing how effective the product is with the anti-cancer claims, as well as how well received a product grown with panda poop will be received.

However, the panda poo tea won't be the only exotic poo-grown drink on the market, as the world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak, is grown with the excrement of the civet, a cat-like animal.

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