Insect tea

Various insect teas are produced by small traditional communities particularly in the Southeast Asian hill regions, including southern China and Thailand.

Insects in turn have evolved[citation needed] biochemical mechanisms or symbiotic relationships with microbes that allow them to consume these plants.

The faecal matter often concentrates certain chemicals that produce distinctive flavours and tastes – and claimed effects on human health.

A few academic journals have published papers reporting pharmacological effects of some of these teas or of chemicals found in them, though little follow-up research has been done as of 2019.

Since the 2000s, drinks purporting to be sanye tea (with widely varying other ingredients) have been marketed, especially in the West, as a dietary supplement with unsubstantiated weight-loss, laxative, and detoxification claims.