COMPARISON OF CATECHIN PROFILES (CAMELLIA SINENSIS) IN ALCOHOLIC SMOKERS’ PLASMA AND URINE

Cigarette smoking and excessive chronic alcohol consumption are accepted risk factors for the causation of various diseases and disorders. Globally 2.5 billion alcoholics and 2.0 billion smokers exist (WHO, 2018). The comorbidity of alcohol and cigarette smoking is highly prevalent. This study is designed to investigate the influence of green tea an effective therapeutic agent to treat the damage caused by the co-use of cigarette smoking and alcohol in humans. Green tea, a water infusion prepared from the dried leaves of Camellia sinensis, is one of the most popular beverages in the world. The major tea catechins are Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), Epicatechin (EC), Epicatechin gallate (ECG), Epigallocatechin (EGC). This study had a participation of 150 healthy adult male volunteers between 35 to 65 years of age and weighing between 70 to 85 kg. In this study, EGCG catechin metabolites were detected in the plasma and urine of human volunteers after supplementation of green tea. The served green tea showed the concentrations of various catechins especially EGCG (81.24%), ECG (1.13%), EGC (1.57%), EGCG-3Me (0.36%) and EC (0.96%) present in the beverage. HPLC chromatograms of tea catechins and their metabolites in human found as higher in plasma where EGCG was recorded in smokers with green tea intake (45.4 nmol/L/100 µL) in comparison with alcoholics (18 nmol/L/100 µL), alcoholic smokers (21.2 nmol/L/100 µL) and control subjects (19.4 nmol/L/100 µL).Similarly, urinary excretion of catechins/degradatory products were more in alcoholics with green tea (128.9 nmol/L/100 µL) than other groups viz., smokers, alcoholic smokers and controls with green tea intake.