Abstract

EVALUATION OF ANTITUMOR EFFECT OF METHYLXANTHINE FRACTION ISOLATED FROM PU-ERH TEA

Kaloyan Georgiev*, Ivan Iliev and Iliya Jelev

Abstract

In this study we investigated the effects of methylxanthine fractionextracted from the Pu-erh tea leaves against human colon carcinomacell line HT-29, human breast carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231 andhealthy cell lines – BALB/3T3 and BJ. We used differentconcentrations of the methylxanthine fraction (2 – 1000 μg/ml) on thecultured cells and incubated them for 24 and 72 h. The cytotoxiceffects were measured by the MTT dye reduction assay. Themethylxanthine fraction extracted from Pu-erh tea has shownconcentration-dependent cytotoxicity on colon and breast carcinomacell lines. The combination of methylxanthine fraction and oxaliplatindid not result in synergism.

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