Source: www.jyi.org
Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) – the primary component of Green Tea – was shown to have an ability to block the communication system of a bacterial test strain, Chromobacterium violaceum.
The ability of bacteria to sense their population density is a recently discovered phenomenon. Many studies have shown that this “quorum sensing” ability of bacteria enable them to coordinate their behavior. Individual bacterium does not produce the necessary weapons of host destruction until such time that their population is large enough to cause invasion. Blocking quorum sensing is now considered to be a viable target to control bacterial infections.
Green tea has been shown by previous studies to have antimcrobial and anti-infective abilities, but the mechanism is not likely to be due to antibiotic action since its components are not remarkably toxic to bacteria. Our study, published in the June 2008 issue of Science Diliman, substantiated the possibility that EGCG may be able to prevent bacterial infections by blocking the communication systems of bacterial pathogens.
Using the test organism, Chromobacterium violaceum, which produces a violet pigment when its quorum sensing system is functional, we were able to show that at 500 ug/mL – a concentration that is used by food products that utilize EGCG as an ingredient – pigment production was significantly inhibited. This reduction in pigmentation can only be attributed to the inhibition of quorum sensing and not to toxicity to bacteria since in this test strain, EGCG actually caused the cell density to increase significantly.
The abstract of the paper is accessible online at http://journals.upd.edu.ph/index.php/sciencediliman/article/view/1136. There is also a link to the full PDF paper in that page.
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