Tea and its components reduce the production of uric acid by inhibiting xanthine oxidase

Dan Wu; Ruohong Chen; Wenji Zhang; Xingfei Lai; Lingli Sun; Qiuhua Li; Zhenbiao Zhang; Junxi Cao; Shuai Wen; Zhaoxiang Lai; Zhigang Li; Fanrong Cao; Shili Sun

doi:10.29219/fnr.v66.8239

Tea and its components reduce the production of uric acid by inhibiting xanthine oxidase

Food Nutr Res. 2022 Jun 15:66. doi: 10.29219/fnr.v66.8239. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Dan Wu^{1

2}, Ruohong Chen¹, Wenji Zhang¹, Xingfei Lai¹, Lingli Sun¹, Qiuhua Li¹, Zhenbiao Zhang¹, Junxi Cao¹, Shuai Wen¹, Zhaoxiang Lai¹, Zhigang Li¹, Fanrong Cao², Shili Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ Tea Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Resources Innovation & Utilization, Guangzhou, China.
² College of Horticulture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: The health benefits of tea are as diverse including the reduction of uric acid levels. Xanthine oxidase is the most directly mediated enzyme in the production of uric acid.

Objective: To explore the inhibitory effects of different teas and its main bioactive components on the production of uric acid.

Design: Experimental study. The experiments were conducted in vitro using human immortalized normal liver cell line HL-7702 (L-02).

Results: The inhibition of the xanthine oxidase activities and the expression level of xanthine dehydrogenase mRNA stimulated in the hyperuric hepatocyte cell model showed that the unfermented green tea and th1e lightly fermented yellow tea, white tea, and oolong tea significantly stronger than the highly fermented black tea and dark tea. The main bioactive compound, gallic acid, showed the strongest inhibitory effect on uric acid production, followed by tea polyphenols and theaflavins.

Discussion: All teas exhibited significant inhibition of xanthine oxidase activities, and the degree of fermentation of tea may be inversely proportional to its ability to inhibit the production of uric acid. Compared with tea polyphenols rich in tea, gallic acid may be a more potential uric acid-lowering component.

Conclusion: In this article, we first compared the effects of six traditional Chinese tea made from a single variety in stabilizing the synthesis of uric acid and found that the lighter the fermentation, the greater the potential for inhibiting the production of uric acid. Furthermore, we analyzed the inhibitory effects of its main biochemical active ingredients and found that the inhibitory effects of polyphenols rich in lightly fermented tea were significantly stronger than caffeine rich in highly fermented tea. Our findings will be helpful for people to choose a proper tea for alleviating hyperuricemia and provide a scientific basis for uric acid-lowering tea processing.

Keywords: gallic acid; hyperuricemia; tea; tea polyphenols; uric acid; xanthine oxidase.