Catechins in Green Tea Inactivate Coronavirus in Saliva

Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine

June 15, 2021

The Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine announced on June 15 that it has confirmed that catechins contained in green tea and other beverages have the effect of inactivating the coronavirus contained in human saliva in vitro, reducing its ability to infect people.

The catechins in the tea are hardly absorbed into the bloodstream, so they cannot be expected to have a systemic effect, but they can be expected to suppress the infectious ability of the virus in the mouth.

Professor Osamu Matsuda and his colleagues at the university's graduate school conducted the research in collaboration with Ito En Central Research Institute. The results were published this month in English, in two European scientific journals, here.

According to the announcement, when the saliva of a healthy person and coronavirus were placed in a test tube and tea was added, inactivation was confirmed in about 10 seconds. It is believed that the catechins prevented the virus from invading the cells by binding to the spike protein that the virus binds to when it invades.

Professor Matsuda said, "Drinking tea after holding it in the mouth for 10 seconds may reduce droplet infections and reduce mass infections.
The study did not examine the effect of the mutated strain. The research group is conducting clinical trials on patients with mild corona and hopes to publish the results by the end of this year.

This is a translation of an original article published by the Japanese news service Jiji:

緑茶のカテキンがコロナ不活化唾液内ウイルスで効果―京都府医大

^{https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2021061501170&g=soc}

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