Safety Assessment of Functional Drinks Prepard From Green Tea Catechins and Epigallocatechin Gallate

Increasing awareness regarding natural ingredients has led to utilization of functional beverages in diet based therapy. Present project was designed to evaluate safe use of functional drink prepared from green tea active ingredients. Efficacy trial was conducted in male Sprague Dawley rats for period of eight weeks. Functional drinks were prepared by adding catechins and Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) @ 550 mg/500 mL and provided to rats for the period of eight weeks. Four types of studies were conducted consisting of different types of diets i.e. study I (normal diet), study II (high cholesterol diet), study III (high sucrose diet), study IV (high cholesterol+high sucrose diet). The results revealed safety of functional drinks as values for liver and kidney function tests and serum proteins remained in normal range. Organs to body weight ratio were non-significantly effected by functional drinks. Conclusively it can be suggested that functional drinks carrying green tea catechins and EGCG are safe and could be a part of diet therapy for treatments of lifestyle related disorders.