According to Indian scientists, black tea is beneficial in treating and even curing breast cancer as their researchers have shown that a compound in black tea kills breast cancer cells, opening a way for development of a new, safe anti-cancer drug.
"We have heard a lot about anti-cancer properties of green tea. It is because most of such work has taken place in parts of the world where green tea is consumed," Dr Tanya Das from the Bose Institute, Kolkata, said at a sectional symposium at the 93rd Indian Science Congress.
"But we have used a compound called theoflavin from black tea leaves in our experiments," she said.
Experiments were carried out on mice and human breast cancer cells in laboratories and "the response was very good," she said. This black tea compound led to death of cancer cells and also caused slowing down of a process called metastesis, which is responsible for spreading of cancer cells, Das claimed.
The compound causes death of cancer cells by affecting the balance of "onco-proteins", the proteins which play a role in manifestation of cancer, Das said.
"In experiments, about 50% of cancer cells were killed," she said. The anti-cancer drugs have the problem of toxicity as they kill healthy cells too and also suppress the body's immunity.
But "our experiments showed that this compound was not toxic to cells," she claimed. However, the absorption of this black tea compound by the body is very low.
Thus, the better way would be to develop a new drug, for which theoflavin may be combined with any derivative to increase its absorption by the body, she said adding, "we are working in this direction."
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