Theacrine From Camellia kucha and Its Health Beneficial Effects

  • Front Nutr. 2020 Dec 17:7:596823. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2020.596823.
Yue-Yue Sheng  1 ,  Jing Xiang  1 ,  Ze-Shi Wang  1 ,  Jing Jin  2 ,  Ying-Qi Wang  1 ,  Qing-Sheng Li  1 ,  Da Li  1 ,  Zhou-Tao Fang  1 ,  Jian-Liang Lu  1 ,  Jian-Hui Ye  1 ,  Yue-Rong Liang  1 ,  Xin-Qiang Zheng  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Tea Research Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
  • 2. Zhejiang Agricultural Technology Extension Center, Hangzhou, China.
PMID: 33392238 DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2020.596823
Abstract

Theacrine, i.e., 1,3,7,9-tetramethyluric acid, is one of the major purine Alkaloids found in leaf of a wild tea plant species Camellia kucha Hung T. Chang. Theacrine has been attracted great attentions academically owing to its diverse health benefits. Present review examines the advances in the research on the health beneficial effects of theacrine, including antioxidant effect, anti-inflammatory effect, locomotor activation and reducing fatigue effects, improving cognitive effect, hypnotic effect, ameliorating lipid metabolism and inhibiting breast Cancer cell metastasis effect. The inconsistent results in this research field and further expectations were also discussed.

Keywords
Camellia sinensis; anti-inflammation; antioxidant; cognition; hypnosis; lipid metabolism; locomotor; metastasis.
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