Washington Business Daily

What accounts for the antimicrobial activity of catechins?

I need this for a project I'm doing. I understand that catechins have a catechol group but how does it bring about the antimicrobial acitivity? Otherwise, if you know what accounts for the animicrobial activity of flavonoids or polyphenols, can you answer too? Thanks. I need this piece of information for a chemistry project. I'm looking for how catechins inhibit microbes in terms of its chemical structure.

Public Comments

1. Tea catechin has been found to have many unique antimicrobiological activities such as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and antitoxic effects. In lab tests, EGCG, found in green tea, was found to prevent HIV from attacking T-Cells. However, it is not known if this has any effect on humans yet. rich in potent anti-oxidants called catachines and xanthines, which are anti-inflammatory and anti-irritant. Reduces irritation when used in glycolic acis formulations. Natural antioxidants that contain at least about 50 % polyphenols and 50 % catachins such as grape seed or green tea extracts are employed in some embodiments....
2. It seems that the cathechol structure of catechins tends to inhibit urease activity, but there are several different points of view on this topic. The catechins do seem to be antioxidants (due to the phenol type structure) and this plays a role.