The molecular mechanism by which tea polyphenols decrease the micellar solubility of cholesterol is not completely clear. To clarify this mechanism, this study investigated the interaction between tea polyphenols (catechins and oolongtheanins) and cholesterol micelles. A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study was performed on a micellar solution containing taurocholic acid and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was carried out on the precipitate and the supernatant that formed when EGCg was added to a cholesterol-micelle solution. The data indicated a regiospecific interaction of EGCg with taurocholic acid. Therefore, the ability of EGCg to lower the solubility of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and cholesterol in micellar solutions can be attributed to their elimination from the micelles due to interaction between taurocholic acids and EGCg.

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Microchannel (MC) emulsification is a promising technique for producing monodisperse emulsions consisting of highly uniform droplets. The authors developed a high-aspect-ratio microstructure (HARMST) made of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as a new MC emulsification device. A PMMA straight-through MC array plate consisting of 31,250 through-holes with a 7.3 9 22.9-lm oblong section and a 200-lm depth was fabricated by a process of synchrotron radiation (SR) lithography and etching. Oblong MCs fabricated in a PMMA straightthrough MC array were highly uniform with a coefficient of variation of less than 2%. The fabricated PMMA straight-through MC array plate was used to produce waterin-oil (W/O) emulsions. Monodisperse W/O emulsions with average droplet diameters of approximately 25 lm and a minimum coefficient of variation of 3.2% were produced via a hydrophobic PMMA straight-through MC array. The PMMA straight-through MC array plate also produced monodisperse W/O emulsions at droplet production rates of up to 1.7 9 10 4 /s. The PMMA straightthrough MC array plates developed in this work are expected to expand the application field of emulsification using straight-through MC array plates, which have previously been made of single-crystal silicon.