Abstract

ANTITUMOR EFFECTS OF PU-ERH TEA CATECHINS IN HUMAN CANCER CELL LINES AND EVALUATION OF COMBINATION EFFECTS WITH OXALIPLATIN

Kaloyan Georgiev*, Ivan Iliev and Iliya Jelev

Abstract

In this study we investigated the effects of catechin fraction extracted from the Pu-erh tea leaves against human colon carcinoma cell line HT-29, human breast carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231 and healthy cell lines – BALB/3T3 and BJ. We added different concentrations of the catechin fraction (2 – 1000 μg/ml) to the cultured cells and incubated them for 24 and 72 h. To detect cytotoxic and antiproliferative effects, we used MTT assay. The catechin fraction extracted from Pu-erh tea slightly exerted a direct cytotoxic effect; while the anti-proliferative action was concentration-dependent on forth used cell lines. Combination of Pu-erh catechins with oxaliplatin did not result in synergistic effects.

Keywords: Camellia sinensis, Pu-erh tea, green tea, anticancer, catechins.