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Sci Tech
Fighting cataract with tea
SCIENTISTS HAVE found that tea may help prevent cataract, which accounts for over 42 per cent of blindness around the world.
Tea, both green and black, is a rich source of antioxidants called flavanoids which are ten to 20-times more powerful than vitamin C, and has ability to retard the progression of eye lens cataract, researchers from Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, said in their study published in the journal of Experimental Eye Research.
Cataract of human eye lens accounts for over 42 per cent blindness around the world and it is estimated that there are 28,000 new cataract cases every day, hence chemical approach for delaying the onset or retarding the progression of cataract is valuable, they said.
In the study they used a cataract causing agent, Selentite, in rats by inducing oxidative stress in the eye tissues.
For 12 days injections of green tea and black tea extract — equivalent to six cups of tea for a human — were administered daily. After six weeks they found that the animals had less advanced cataracts.
This clearly suggests that tea extracts relieve oxidative stress and help delay the onset of cataract and retard progression of cataract by 40 to 60 per cent, researchers said.
A cup of tea provides an approximate 20 mg of flavonoid, and addition of milk does not reduce its effect, they said, adding that a minimum of one or two cups of tea daily should help delay the onset of cataract.
— PTI
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