What is Green Tea?

Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is a popular natural product that is consumed around the world. It is currently available as a tea or dietary supplements, neither of which are controlled substances. There are many claims about the benefits of green tea, such that the product and its main components are considered to play a role cardioprotection and chemoprevention, can enhance weight loss, and improve gut microbiome health. Despite the long list of these alleged benefits, the FDA has neither encouraged nor advised against consumption of green tea or usage of its extracts for medicinal purposes.

What is the focus of our research?

Previously published research has found that green tea and green tea components can interact with and prevent proper absorption, break-down, or elimination of some prescription drugs such as nadolol, a drug used to manage blood pressure. With its increasing consumption due to changing tastes and opinions about its potential medicinal value, there have been increasing concerns about the potential interactions with prescribed and over-the-counter (OTC) medications when taken concurrently.

Due to the unknown effects of co-consumption of green tea and pharmaceutical medications, our goal is to better understand how green tea affects the body; more specifically, how it can potentially interact with other medications. Currently, our research focuses on the interactions between green tea and raloxifene, a drug that can be used to help treat and prevent osteoporosis in women and is considered a probe drug substrate of the enzymes of interest. The importance of this research is to understand and more accurately predict how the body processes green tea and its components.