Data from the Central Statistics Office indicated that diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 40.2 % of the deaths in 2002. Epidemiologic studies report a reduced risk of ischaemic heart disease in subjects with a high phenolic intake through tea and other dietary sources, but findings are still conflicting. The potential protective effects of tea polyphenols have been attributed to its antioxidant, free radical scavenging, antithrombogenic, antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic and anti-inflammatory properties, lowering of plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and reduction of blood pressure and platelet aggregation capacities. Recent animal experiments suggest that polyphenolics may also improve vascular function. Polyphenols remain the most abundant group of compounds in fresh tea leaves and are found in green and black tea beverages at 30-42% and 3-10% of the total dry matter respectively. In a previous systematic analysis of 9 commercially available black tea, we observed that Mauritian black tea infusates represent excellent sources of polyphenolic compounds including (+)-Catechin, (-)-Epicatechin, (-)-Epicatechin-3-gallate, Epigallocatechin, (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, gallic acid, procyanidin dimers B1 and B2, quercetin, myricetin and kaempferol derivatives. The infusates exhibited remarkably high in vitro antioxidant activities as evaluated by four independent assays. The antioxidant activities correlated strongly with levels of total phenols and proanthocyanidins. In line with certain studies on the phytochemistry and antioxidant capacities of the Mauritian diet and parallel to some previous non-communicable diseases intervention programme conducted by the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life, we propose to investigate the association between consumption of black tea and various selective fasting blood serum and urine biomarkers in a Mauritian population with ischaemic heart diseases. The clinical examination and analysis will be performed at the Cardiac Centre, Pamplemousses, in collaboration with Dr TK Guness and Dr OI Aruoma from The London South Bank University, UK. This study, the first of its kind, will provide clinical data on the potential prophylactic propensities of Mauritian black tea against cardiovascular disease, which remains one of the major health threats to the Mauritian population.
