Do you love green tea and drink it often? Well there’s some good news for you, according to new research published in the journal of Molecular Nutricion and Food Research, green tea is good for brain cells, specifically for memory and spatial learning.
The key aspect of the tea is known as EGCG (epigallocatechin-3 gallate), already a known anti-oxident, it is now believed to have a beneficial effect against age-related degenerative diseases. According to the research team from the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China, EGCG boosts the production of neural progenitor cells, which can adapt into various types of cells. They focused on the hippocampus, the part of the brain which processes information from short-term to long-term memory, to see how it is affected by this interesting anti-oxidant.
Based on studying the EGCG’s effect on laboratory mice, subjecting them to tests that require remembering objects and paths. Their results reveal that, as they had proposed, mice who had been exposed to EGCG had a better memory as well as special recognition. Based on these results researchers can now move forward to find out just how effective properties found within green tea could be towards combating degenerative diseases and memory loss in humans.
Source: Australasian Science Magazine
Photo: Dano / flickr
Reference:Yanyan Wang, Maoquan Li, Xueqing Xu, Min Song, Huansheng Tao, & Yun Bai (2012). Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) promotes neural progenitor cell proliferation and sonic hedgehog pathway activation during adult hippocampal neurogenesis Journal of Molecular Nutrition & Food Research DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201200035
(No Ratings Yet)
