Earl Grey Tea Intoxication
Finsterer outlines the case of a 44-year-old man who was suffering from muscle cramps. He had been a heavy drinker of black tea for 25 years but had decided to switch to Earl Grey tea believing it would be less harmful to his stomach.
Within a week of making the change he began to experience muscle cramps in his right foot. The longer he drank Earl Grey tea, the more intense the muscle cramps became and after three weeks were also occurring in the left foot. After five weeks, the muscle cramps had spread towards his hands and the right calf.
Other symptoms also began to present themselves including skin sensitivity, muscle twitching, a feeling of pressure in his eyes and blurred vision. Tests of thyroid, hepatic, adrenal, and kidney functions showed no abnormalities. Serum and urine potassium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, and phosphate were all within the normal range.
The man assumed that there was a relation between his symptoms and his tea consumption, and stopped drinking Earl Grey. Within a week, his symptoms had completely disappeared.
It was decided that the reactions had been caused by ingesting too much bergamot oil from the Earl Grey tea.
Earl Grey tea is composed of black tea and the essence of bergamot oil. Bergamot oil is an extract from the rind of bergamot orange. Bergamot oil contains bergapten (5-methoxypsoralen), bergamottin (5-geranyloxypsoralen), and citropten (5,7-dimethoxycoumarin).
Finsterer J.
Earl Grey tea intoxication.
Lancet 2002:359(9316):1484