Green tea has been known to target pancreatic cancer, and most recently oral cancer. Its strongest antioxidant, EGCG, is able to help kill cancer cells through destruction of the cells’ mitochondria, and may even become a possible alternative to the debilitating chemotherapy. Green tea consumption is believed to not be associated with any of chemo’s side effects, according to a recent study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.
“It looks like EGCG causes the formation of reactive oxygen species in cancer cells, which damages the mitochondria, and the mitochondria responds by making more reactive oxygen species,” Joshua Lambert, associate professor of food science at Penn State, in a press release. Eventually, the mitochondria loses its defenses with a breakdown in the expression of antioxidant genes. It is in this weakened state the cancer cells succumb to EGCG and die.