Recent studies have added to the knowledge about the many health benefits of green tea, noting that chemicals found in the drink can actually help regenerate brain cells. Now, researchers studying the same chemicals have found that they can also shrink cancerous tumors.
Chemicals present in green tea, such as epigallocatechin 3-gallate or EGCG, are gaining prominent attention as new research demonstrates an impressive ability of EGCG to halt cancer growth and improve cardiovascular health.
Research from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, published in Nanomedicine, says EGCG extracted from green tea could be a powerful weapon in treatments for tackling cancer with no side effects. Scientists at the university developed a method for delivering the natural compound directly to tumor cells and found that nearly two-thirds of the tumors shrank or disappeared within a month.
Dr. Christine Dufès, a senior lecturer at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, said: “These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments.
“When we used our method, the green tea extract reduced the size of many of the tumors every day, in some cases removing them altogether. By contrast, the extract had no effect at all when it was delivered by other means, as every one of these tumors continued to grow.
“This research could open doors to new treatments for what is still one of the biggest killer diseases in many countries.”
The tests are believed to be the first time that this type of treatment has made cancerous tumors shrink or vanish.