就健康效益而言，暗茶是全球最佳饮品之一。茶黄素是导致暗茶健康效益的主要成分，被喻为“暗茶中的软黄金”。越来越多的证据表明，茶黄素是具有红褐色和醇厚口感的大分子色素，主要是由茶多酚的氧化聚合形成的。茶黄素是暗茶中的主要活性成分，具有多种促进健康的效应，包括调节脂质代谢、减轻体重增加、减轻糖尿病、缓解非酒精性脂肪肝、清除活性氧、预防肿瘤。更重要的是，在微生物发酵过程中大量产生的茶黄素使得暗茶的降脂效果比其他类型的茶更强。本综述首先总结了茶黄素的制备、结构特点和促进健康效应的最新研究成果，强调了潜在的分子机制，尤其是茶黄素介导的肠道菌群对宿主的多重促健康效应背后的不同机制。此外，本综述指出了当前研究的主要局限性和潜在的未来研究方向，希望为更好地进行理论研究和产业利用提供更新的科学证据。

As far as health benefit is concerned, dark tea is one of the best beverages in the world. Theabrownins are the major ingredient contributing to the health benefits of dark tea and known as "the soft gold in dark tea." A growing body of evidence indicated that theabrownins are macromolecular pigments with reddish-brown color and mellow taste, and mainly derived from the oxidative polymerization of tea polyphenols. Theabrownins are the main active ingredients in dark tea which brings multiple health-promoting effects in modulating lipid metabolism, reducing body weight gain, attenuating diabetes, mitigating NAFLD, scavenging ROS, and preventing tumors. More importantly, it's their substantial generation in microbial fermentation that endows dark tea with much stronger hypolipidemic effect compared with other types of tea. This review firstly summarizes the most recent findings on the preparation, structural characteristics, and health-promoting effects of theabrownins, emphasizing the underlying molecular mechanism, especially the different mechanisms behind the effect of theabrownins-mediated gut microbiota on the host's multiple health-promoting benefits. Furthermore, this review points out the main limitations of current research and potential future research directions, hoping to provide updated scientific evidence for their better theoretical research and industrial utilization.