A comprehensive assessment was conducted in this study to examine the
antioxidant and antitumor activities of
tea extract produced by Tie Guanyin hybridization. Two radical-scavenging systems of assay in vitro, namely
ABTS and DPPH assays, were used to investigate the
antioxidant activity of the summer
tea and autumn
tea extract (STE and ATE) derived from the Jin Guanyin. The results indicated that the major active ingredients were catechins, and the
theaflavin is rare in the STE and ATE. Moreover, STE and ATE could significantly suppress the growth of human
breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 in a dose-dependent manner, and wrecked the morphology of mitochondria, activated
caspase families, leading to the
cancer cell death by both apoptosis and cell cycle arrest pathways. Based on the results from an MDA-MB-231 xenograft nude mice model, STE could effectively prevent the
tumor formation, and greatly improve the mice immunity and thus improve their living conditions. Taken together, ATE and STE could act as a healthy and prospective substitute for natural
antioxidants and a promising prophylactic agent against
cancer. This finding provides a great promising nutritional approach to treat diseases related with oxidative stress.