Tea compound aids dying brain cells

From Washington, D.C., at the Fourth International Scientific Symposium on Tea and Human Health

A constituent of green tea can revive moribund brain cells, Israeli researchers report. The team experimented with animal neurons that had been chemically poisoned to model the death of dopamine-producing cells in Parkinson’s disease.

In a test-tube study, low doses of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)—the primary antioxidant in green tea—revived sick and dying neurons, reports Silvia Mandel of the Technion Faculty of Medicine in Haifa.