Tea, the most consumed nonalcoholic beverage is being used worldwide as a major health drink due to some of its important constituents like polyphenols, caffeine, theanine, saponin. Among these constituents, polyphenols are most important due to their potential applications related to human health. The major constituent of tea polyphenols, responsible for several health benefits, known as catechins constitute about 30–42% of the dry weight. Some of the major health benefits of tea polyphenols include their anticancer property, antioxidant activity, antimicrobial activity, effects in cardiovascular diseases, effects in neuroprotection, and antidiabetic and psychotropic effects. In spite of several impressive data on health benefits of tea polyphenols, there are certain constraints like bioavailability, stability, and metabolic transformation under physiological conditions which limit the application of tea polyphenols as a therapeutic agent. To overcome these limitations, certain approaches like prodrug approach and the nanoencapsulation have been attempted. Of these two approaches, use of nano-based carriers could be reliable for delivery of tea polyphenols. Nanoparticles, due to their small size could penetrate through small capillaries and are taken up by the cells allowing maximum drug accumulation at the target site and allow sustained release of drug at the target site over a period of time. Different types of nanoparticles have been used for this purpose which includes lipid-based nanomaterials, dendrimers, and polymeric nanoparticles including several proteins and copolymers. Among all these materials used, polymeric nanoparticles are widely used as nano-based carriers due to some of its properties such as biodegradability, nonantigenic, metabolizable, and easily modifiable for surface alterations. With these implications, several new formulations are being developed by encapsulating tea polyphenols in polymeric nanoparticles, thereby achieving increased bioavailability and stability. The application of nanotechnology for the delivery of tea polyphenols would serve as a promising tool in the field of medicine. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.