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Introduction: Saliva plays a critical role in preventing dental caries through regulation of pH, flow rate and proteins of saliva. Tea leaves from black tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the plants containing catechins that has shown to influence secretion of saliva, thus it can inhibit the development of caries. This study aimed to investigate the effect of consuming black tea (Camellia sinensis) on level of salivary pH, flow rate and secreted lysozyme in caries and caries-free subjects. Materials and methods: Saliva was obtained from twenty four participants divided into two categories, caries and caries free group. Subjects were asked to collect saliva before and 30 minutes after drinking a cup of tea. Salivary pH was measured using a digital pH meter, while the flow rate was measured by weighing the collected saliva divided by time. The concentration of lysozyme was assessed by using ELISA kit. The data were analyzed using paired t-test and Mann Whitney test. Results: The results showed that black tea significantly increased pH and salivary flow rate, but had no significant effect on salivary lysozyme. It also demonstrated that there was no significant difference on salivary pH, flow rate, lysozyme after drinking black tea in the caries subjects compared to the caries free. Conclusion: Although drinking black tea could raise salivary pH and flow rate, but it did not promote the increase of lysozyme. This finding suggests that black tea had no unfavourable impact on saliva in oral environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]