Exp Eye Res. 2001 Sep; 73(3): 393-401.

Antioxidant properties of green and black tea, and their potential ability to retard the progression of eye lens cataract.

Thiagarajan G, Chandani S, Sundari CS, Rao SH, Kulkarni AV, Balasubramanian D.

Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad 500 034, India.

Aqueous extracts of green and black tea are shown to quench reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen, superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, prevent the oxidative cross-linking of test proteins and inhibit single strand breakage of DNA in whole cells. They are also seen to be able to counteract the oxidative insult mounted by cigarette smoke. In rats in which cataract was induced by subcutaneous injection of selenite, administration of green or black tea extracts led to a retardation of the progression of lens opacity, suggesting the potential cataracto-static ability of tea.