Lanka's Green Tea prevents strokes

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

No doubt, it is a storm in a cup of tea. Soon this storm will influence people to choose the right drink not just to refresh energy but to be healthy.

Dr. Ranil de Silva	Prof. Y.Z. Zhe

It was a storm brewing in a cup of tea purely prepared using Ceylon Green Tea. Why is it a storm? Because... it was 'discovered' that Green Tea that is grown in highlands of Sri Lanka has the ability in preventing damages to cells caused by reduced supply of oxygen to Human Brain Epithelial Cells (HBEC). This simply means that our Green Tea has the power of preventing strokes and some other diseases.

These are not just mere facts but revealed in a ground-breaking study done by the Chinese Prof. Y.Z. Zhe, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Singapore and Dr. Ranil de Silva, Department of Anatomy of the University of Sri Jayawardenapura. These experts believe that flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that protect against strokes and also promote health. They have clear evidence that drinking adequate amount of Ceylon Green Tea can cut the chances of having a stroke.

The five-year long study, which was published in the Journal of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences, has tested the ability of flavonoids extracted from Ceylon Green Tea to act as agents which could reduce the stress in cells experiencing a reduction in oxygen supply (hypoxia) and their ability of reducing the death and damage of the HBEC.

"We did this study as an in vitro hypoxic model using HEBC which was cultured under two separate conditions: one group with normal oxygen delivery and another with inadequate oxygen delivery. Into the second group of flavonoids of Ceylon Treen Tea extract were added before inducing hypoxia. The group of HEBC without the tea extract was used as control", Prof. Zhe said in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer.

Prof. Zhe, who was the livewire to support the study financially, said that Ceylon Green Tea would have a very promising future as it was scientifically proven that Ceylon Green Tea had very effective therapeutic ingredients to prevent strokes. "Lots of papers have been published about Chinese Green Tea to say that they have anti-oxidant properties. But this is the first time that Ceylon tea have been tested scientifically to see a connection between Ceylon Green Tea and its anti-oxidant properties to prevent strokes", he said adding that surprisingly the team had found that Ceylon Green Tea has more effective protection against strokes. "Sri Lankan tea is already very famous for its taste. Now we have scientifically proved that sipping Ceylon Green Tea is not only for a moment of joy but a drink which gives you long-term health benefits", he said.

According to Prof. Zhe, Ceylon Green Tea has topped all the natural resources listed for prevention of strokes and whether it is milk tea or plain tea, the anti-oxidant values remain unchanged.

"The results were very promising. It was found in this study that hypoxia + flavonoids extract treated HBEC appears to be more resistant to oxidative stress causing DNA damage. Pre-treatment with flavonoids extract significantly increased the cell viability of hypoxic HBEC. The results show that the activity levels for antioxidant enzymes were significantly increased after hypoxia in the flavonoid extract treated group", he said.

Prof. Zhe said that this observation was consistent with the important antioxidative enzymes found in the body as natural defense against oxygen free radicals.

"This suggests that flavonoids extract could have a two fold effect on oxygen free radicals in the body when consumed actively.

Therefore, cerebral protection could be helped by the consumption of Ceylon Green Tea as supplements in a form of antioxidant therapy", he added.

He said that Ceylon Green Tea was similiary effective like the Western drug called Losartan, which was not affordable to many patients. " But tea is cheap and freely available in Sri Lanka", he said.

Dr. De Silva said that this study would be an unique test using HEBC and might be a complimentary to the western therapeutic regime. " It has been a long established fact that tea is a wonderfully refreshing beverage.

The findings of modern science in reference to its therapeutic value, makes tea the ideal drink for our times", he said adding that frequent drink of Ceylon Green Tea will help treat strokes.

According to Dr. de Silva, stroke is on the increase in Sri Lanka and it is high among the young aged below 45-years. " Compared to the Western countries which has three to five percent young stroke patients, of the total stroke patients over 30 percent is young people below the age of 45 years", he said.

Hoping to carry out an epidemiological study to prove the major reasons for the increase scientifically, Dr. de Silva said that future studies could be done to isolate the individual active component in Ceylon tea.