Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green
tea -- renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting
properties -- do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report,
the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb
these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect
against glaucoma and other common eye diseases.
Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea
"catechins" have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of
protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and
zeaxanthin. Until now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green
tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the
tissues of the eye.
Pang and his colleagues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with
laboratory rats that drank green tea. Analysis of eye tissues showed
beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed significant amounts of
individual catechins. The retina, for example, absorbed the highest
levels of gallocatechin, while the aqueous humor tended to absorb
epigallocatechin. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful
oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours. "Our results
indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against
oxidative stress," the report concludes.
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