Re: Anti oxidant effects of green tea

JMathieuUS@aol.com
Wed, 9 Jun 1999 15:33:12 EDT

In a message dated 6/9/99 2:46:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ALV@qm.com writes:

>Could someone with more biochemistry knowledge than me comment on the
>following reports?

>This one says that green tea is a better antioxidant than Vit C and E
>http://www.techmall.com/techdocs/TS970911-14.html. I was skeptical (of
>course!!) but then I saw this one, along the same lines.
>http://www2.ari.net/rjohnson/articles/GREENTEA.PUR.html

After reading the first article I was skeptical because the authors claim EGCG is a better antioxidant than either vitamin C or E. But while vitamin E is fat soluble and protects mainly against free radicals within the membranes vitamin C is water soluble and protects in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Is EGCG somehow soluble in both lipids and aqueous solution? Also the source was Pharmanex Inc.. Perhaps they are the suppliers of Tegreen? Antioxidants in general are marketed by wild claims to produce results that they never could. Sure we all need them but there are various factors which make them useful that commercially available supplements do not have. Often only one enantiomer is biologically active while the other(s) is not if it has isomers. Physiological conditions can change one form to the next in some cases but often not, so what you receive may not even be active. Also oxidation can occur during storage, again inactivating the useful properties. There are also studies that suggest that additional amounts of many of the common antioxidants do little more to protect one against free radicals then are natural production.

Jacques Mathieu