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Tea compounds block tumors Allan H. Conney, professor of cancer and leukemia research, and his colleagues at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., find that two compounds in green tea reduce formation of skin tumors in mice irradiated with ultraviolet B light [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99, 12455 (2002)]. The compounds are caffeine and epigallocatechin gellate. Both were applied to the skin. The mice were a hairless breed especially subject to skin tumors. Caffeine appears to have the edge because it is chemically more stable. The effect is biological, not a sun-screening effect, Conney says. Mice were tested earlier with oral caffeine, which seemed to work. People have not been tested with either compound. Says Conney: "If you are a mouse, it would be terrific. In people, we just don't know yet." |
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