Black tea has been reported to have anti-obesity effects in both rodents and humans. Gallic acid, an active component of black tea, decomposes quickly into pyrogallol in high-temperature solutions. This study introduced a new, aqueous ethanol extraction of black tea, which resulted in extracts with higher concentrations of gallic acid than conventional black tea extracts prepared by hot-water extraction or hot-ethanol extraction. We confirmed that, compared with the hot-water extract of black tea, the cold-ethanol extract of black tea (CE-BTE) had greater effects on reducing body weight and body fat, improving fatty liver, regulating blood glucose, and reducing blood cholesterol in the high-fat diet-induced obese mouse model. Nonetheless, although CE-BTE significantly reduced fat content, it did not reduce peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARγ) protein in epididymal fat tissue of HFD mice. We also showed that CE-BTE did not inhibit the function of PPARγ protein to drive adipogenesis of mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. Considering that PPARγ is a master transcription factor not only for adipocyte differentiation, but also for adipose tissue function, such as glucose and lipid metabolism and insulin sensitivity, these results suggest that CE-BTE reduced fat mass and body weight without dampening fat cell homeostasis and insulin sensitivity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.