Coffee without caffeine is growing in the wild!
Washington | June 24, 2004 4:34:14 PM IST
If you are one of those health conscious people who like coffee but are wary of the caffeine in it, there is god news for you.
According to Nature, Brazilian researchers have discovered naturally caffeine-free coffee by breeding 3,000 Ethiopian coffee plants as part of a programme to produce low-caffeine strains.
They found three bushes, all derived from the same plant, that were virtually caffeine free, containing 15 times less stimulant than commercial strains. The shrubs belong to the species Coffea arabica, the most cultivated and consumed coffee in the world.
According to Paulo Mazzafera from the State University of Campinas, who co-discovered the plants, "This is the first time anyone has found a decaffeinated version of Coffea arabica."
The researchers have not been able to taste any coffee made from the plants as these will take several years to mature. The bushes also grow around 30 percent more slowly than standard arabica plants, so the team hopes to crossbreed them with their caffeine-rich relatives to produce a fast-growing, caffeine-free variety. But selective breeding like this can take ten years or more. (ANI)
