In Fig. 1A, HFD rats consuming daily GTD and BTD for 10 weeks,
have a significant 3-fold (P < 0.001 vs CTRL) and 2.5-fold (P < 0.001
vs CTRL) increase in plasma TPC concentrations, respectively.
Plasma caffeine concentrations were also enhanced reaching a 6-
fold (P < 0.01 vs. CTRL) for GTD and 10-fold (P < 0.01 vs. CTRL)
for BTD in HFD rats (Fig. 1B). Moreover, the TPC excretion in feces
was high in both group of HFD rats consuming tea decoction as
compared to CTRL (P < 0.001) (Fig. 2A). The appearance of TPC in
feces was rapid-as early as 5 weeks-and dramatic. The amount of
TPC excreted in feces varied from 500 mg at week 5th to 700 mg EC/g
feces at week 10th for GTD and BTD. This high excretion of TPC in
feces would suggest an important presence of tea-polyphenols
within the intestinal lumen able to influence the processes
involved in lipid digestion and absorption. By contrast, tea-caffeine
is rapidly absorbed from the intestine, since plasma caffeine levels
were high reaching values of 4e6 mg caffeine per ml (Fig. 1B) and
excretion of caffeine in feceswas detected in small amounts varying
from 0.6 to 0.8 mg per g feces in HFD rats consuming GTD and BTD,
respectively (Fig. 2B).