ABSTRACT
Tea consumption is changing its status from a mere ancient beverage and a lifestyle habit to a nutrient endowed with prospective neurobiological-pharmacological actions beneficial to human health. Accumulating evidence suggest that oxidative stress resulting in reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and inflammation plays a pivotal role in neurodegenerative diseases, supporting the implementation of radical scavengers, transition metals (e.g., iron and copper) chelators, and nonvitamin natural antioxidant polyphenols in the clinic. These observations are in line with the current view that polyphenolic dietary supplementation may have an impact on cognitive deficits in old age. As a consequence, green tea polyphenols are now being considered as therapeutic agents in well-controlled epidemiological studies, aimed at altering brain aging processes and as possible neuroprotective agents in progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In particular, literature on the putative, novel neuroprotective mechanism of the major green tea polyphenol, (
−)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), will be examined and discussed in this review.
