Dive Brief:
- Polyphenols in green tea could help prevent abdominal aortic aneurysm, according to new research published by a team from Kyoto University in Japan.
- Researchers found this type of aneurysm developed less frequently in rats that drank green tea.
- Abdominal aortic aneurysms are hard to detect, fatal 50% of the time upon rupturing, and there is currently no pharmaceutical treatment available.
Dive Insight:
Researchers continue to discover more benefits in green tea, expanding the potential for developing extracts or leveraging green tea polyphenol content as a potential nutraceutical ingredient in the future.
Tea extracts are already a popular product worldwide, and are often consumed on their own or are added to supplements and other products. A 2014 study from Grand View Research says the market for tea polyphenols is estimated to hit $368 million by 2020.
"The type of polyphenol in green tea has recently been shown to regenerate elastin, an essential protein that gives the artery its stretchy, yet sturdy texture," according to lead author Shuji Setozaki. Researchers saw less inflammation and more elastin production in rats that consumed the green tea polyphenols. The team has yet to recommend an optimal dose of green tea polyphenol consumption, but says that is the goal of future research.
Green tea, made from unfermented leaves, tends to have a higher concentration of polyphenols than black and oolong teas. Green tea has also been linked to atherosclerosis prevention, lowering total cholesterol and raising HDL. Multiple studies suggest green tea might help protect against certain types of cancer, but both green and black tea extracts, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, can stimulate genes that cause cells to be less sensitive to chemotherapy drugs.