Abstract
Green tea catechins are known to have various beneficial effects for the maintenance and promotion of human health, and their anti-obesity effects have recently been highlighted. However, galloylesters of the green tea catechins, such as epigallocathechingallate (EGCg) and epicathechingallate, are known to bind quickly with food ingredients (i.e. proteins) to form a complex that is likely to be inabsorbable through the host intestine, whereas non-esterified catechins such as epi-gallocathechin (EGC) and epicathechin are not. We recently demonstrated that tannase producing Lactobacillus plantarum 22A-3 hydrolyzed EGCg complexed with food ingredients to yield EGC and gallic acid in vitro. In this context, we determined whether an oral administration of L. plantarum 22A-3 hydrolyzed the complex to EGC, thereby exerting an anti-obesity effect in mice. Our results show that joint oral administration of L. plantarum 22A-3 and EGCg markedly reduced not only EGCg content in feces but also total visceral fat per body weight of the mice. The evidence suggests that L. plantarum 22A-3 hydrolyze EGCg complexed with food ingredients to EGC in vivo. This in turn presents the prospect of a probiotic use for L. plantarum 22A-3 to enhance the anti-obesity effect of green tea cathechins.
