Cancer-promoting effects of phenols in tea

Abstract

Black tea (10 kg) bought at the local market was extracted and separated into four fractions. With spectroscopic and gas chromatographic methods phenols and dimethylphenols were found in the phenolic fraction. An initial application of 1% acetone solution of 3/4 benzopyrene to the neck region of each of 15 young Swiss mice was followed by paintings of tea to the neck region on alternate days for 55 applications. A control group of 15 similar mice received only the single benzopyrene painting. The control mice developed no skin lesions, but all of the mice treated with benzopyrene plus tea demonstrated various stages of cancer development. To produce cancer it is not necessary that both initiator and promoter agents be present in the same product; they may be completely separate in origin. The author concludes that we should become increasingly concerned about our environment, which contains in many instances minute amounts of initiators and larger amounts of promoters.