Green tea (& extract of): mega doses,improving absorption, risks & rewards

[heblaj01]

In these 2 links a commentator (not an MD) from a CLL group details some new facts on green tea consumption in healthy people & in cancer patients whose liver may be adversely affected by mega doses,
He also describes a pure ECGC extract from green tea prepared as a candy for improved absorption in the mouth (& I assume less side effect on the liver?)


http://www.clltopics.org/Phyto/LatestonGreenTea.htm
Latest on Green Tea Extracts Date: February 5, 2006

http://www.clltopics.org/Phyto/harveys_chocolates.htm (http://www.clltopics.org/Phyto/harveys_chocolates.htm)
Harvey's Chocolates May 2, 2004
Oral Absorption of EGCG

[Tom]

Dear Heblaj,

You have really outdone yourself this time. What great articles those were. The information contained in them was most helpful, particularly since I have been counting on EGCG so much for Mom's treatment against the HER2+ disease. I will try the chocolates soon, and have already been making green tea popsicles, so maybe Mom has been ingesting therapeutic levels of EGCG after all. I had read about the use of Polyphenon-E a long time ago, but was unable to obtain any, even after getitng the name of the Japanese manufacturer. I will try again to obtain it. Thanks again for a fantastic post!

Sincerely,
Tom

[heblaj01]

Tom,

Most pure chemicals for medical use can be procured from companies such as Sigma Aldrich in the US.
I don't know however if they service private individuals in addition to their regular institutional clients. But a local cooperative pharmacist should be able as a last resort to procure them for you.
Prices are often stunning for high purity compounds.

[heblaj01]

Tom,

I found two pieces of info which may simplify the task of those like you who use green tea extract (mainly for its EGCG) & want to improve bioavailability.

The first one is a supplier of 10g chocolate pieces laced with 100mg of 90% pure EGCG. If this purity is adequate it might replace the home made chocolate confection described in a link provided in a previous post in this thread:
http://www.neuchatelchocolates.com/EGCG.asp

The second one is about one supplier of 94% pure EGCG at a reasonable price:
Teavigo™ made by Pure Encapsulation.(60 veg-caps, each 150mg of which 94% is EGCG)
These pills are much more affordable than the higher purity chemicals available from suppliers like Sigma-Aldrich whose prices run in hundreds of dollars for a 100mg single quantity.

[Nguyen]

Mega Doses of Green Tea Extract May Help, not Hinder, Tumor Growth

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=21150




Unconventional therapies for cancer: 2 Green Tea

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1229225&blobtype=pdf

- Nguyen