Tea (Camellia sinensis), as a popular beverage, has attracted public attention because of accumulating scientific evidence linking tea consumption with health promoting benefits. Fresh tea leaves contain four major tea catechins, namely (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECG) and (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).  These green tea catechins are reported to have many biological activities including anti-oxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-obesity, and reducing the contents of RCS (reactive carbonyl species) and ROS (reactive oxygen species) that are evidenced to have detrimental effects for human health.  Many in vitro and in vivo biological studies have been performed for EGCG because of its ready availability.  In this presentation, we report our study in the isolation, purification and biological study of another rich catechin in green tea - ECG.  By employing an LH-20 Sephadex column with mixed eluting solvents of ethanol and water, we have successfully isolated pure ECG and our initial screening of its biological activity showed that ECG has anti-inflammatory property. Our results demonstrate that ECG downregulates inflammatory inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) gene expression by inhibiting the activation of NFkB in macrophages.

Isolation and biological activity screening of (-)-epicatechin gallate from green tea

244th National Meeting (2012)

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