Green tea and EGCG

Green tea in it's condensed extract form EGCG is more biologically more stronger and effective. 30 to 40 percent of green tea are water-soluble polyphenols where as black tea has only about 3-10 percent. Oolong-tea is somewhere between green and black tea.

Tea was first mentioned in medical books around 600bc. For a long time was only drank by monks and nobels. Regular people didn't get to enjoy it until much later. At first tea was drank only for it's caffeine. Now days we know more of it's health benefiting substances like EGCG.

Black tea of green tea?

Black tea is made by fermenting tea leaves. When making green tea fermenting is prevented by heat treating the tea leaves. Preventing the fermentation of the tea leaves the health benefiting catechin EGCG is preserverd. Green tea has more pharmacologically active substances than black tea. Due to these substances green tea is considered to be a functional food.

Black tea has an anti-cancer substance caller TF-2 where as green tea's active anti-cancer substance is called epigallocatechin gallate. EGCG inhibits the cancer causing substance called DHFR. Three to eight cups of black tea per day protects from cardio pulmonary diseases and is otherwise healthy.

What is green tea made of?

Green tea is one of the best studied natural products. The best known components are purinealkaloids, caffeine, theobromine, theophylline and EGCG. The latter is a traditionally used very effective asthma medicine. Green tea has less caffeine than black tea. Depending on the location and method of harvest the concentration is between three and five percent. Other significant substances are an aminoacid called glutamineacidethylamide, flavonoids and polyfenols which consist about 20% of the teas dry weight.

Green tea has a lot of plant antioxidant, which destroy the free radicals forming in our bodies. They are caused by toxins in the nature, toxins in the air, ozone, UV-rays and tobacco smoke. They are also caused by inflammatory diseases and other prolonged illnesses such as arthritis, drinking a lot of coffee and alcohol, smoking and some medication. We cannot escape them but take measures to protect from them.
Antioxidants such as EGCG prevent cells from mutation, cancer ja aging. Flavonoids prevent fat build-up in tissue. So green tea is an excellent weightloss beverage (or in tabler form a great nutritional supplement. The catechin-flavonoids in green tea can be more effective as antioxidants than vitamins C and D. Some scientists think that epigallocatechins are the best natural antioxidant found so far. Flavonoids in green tea are very well absorbed from the intestines to the blood.