Excretion of Four Catechins in Tea Polyphenols in Rats

Objective To investigate excretion profiles of the four major anti-oxidant active catechins, (-) epigallo-catechin-3-gallate (EGCG), (-) epicatechin-3-gallate (ECG), (-) epigallocatechin (EGC), and epicatechin (EC) in tea polyphenols (TP) in rats in order to provide experimental data for clinical uses and development of TP as a novel drug. Methods The above four catechins in urine, bile, and feces were simultaneously determined by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet absorption detector (HPLC-UV) assay with a binary gradient elution. The samples were extracted by ethyl acetate prior to HPLC. The quantification was carried out by peak area internal standard method. Following iv dosing TP 100 mg/kg to rats, the samples were collected at different time intervals up to 8 h (urine and bile) and 24 h (feces). Results The urinary Ae, 0-8 h (cumulative excretion amount over 8 h) of EGCG, ECG, EGC, and EC were, on the average, 150.83, 30.75, 116.69, and 254.56 μg, corresponding to fe, 0-8 h (cumulative excretion fraction of dose over 8 h) of 1.45%, 0.84%, 7.88%, and 10.73%, respectively; the biliary Ae, 0-8 h were 12.61, 42.64, 6.61, and 1.24 μg, corresponding to the fe, 0-8 h of 0.12%, 1.16%, 0.45%, and 0.053%,respectively. For fecal excretion, only EGCG and EGC were detected with Ae, 0-24 h of 7.38 μg (fe, 0-24 h of 0.07%) and 157 μg (fe, 0-24 h of 9.99 %), respectively. The fe, total (the total fe of 3 excretory routes) were 18.32%, 10.78%, 2.00%, and 1.64% for EGC, EC, ECG, and EGCG, respectively. Conclusion EGCG and EC are mainly excreted in urine, ECG in bile, and EGC in feces by reference to their Ae and fe. The excretion of the four catechins based on fe, total is ranked in order of EGC > EC > ECG > EGCG. Only small amount of four catechins are recovered in urine, bile, and feces, indicating an extensive metabolic conversion of catechins in the rat body.