Therapeutic uses of epicatechin in diabetes and cancer

Vet World Vol.10 August-2017 Article-6

Review Article

Veterinary World, 10(8): 869-872

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.869-872

Layth Abdulmajeed Abdulkhaleq^1,2, Mohammed Abdulrazzaq Assi^3,4, Mohd Hezmee Mohd Noor³, Rasedee Abdullah¹, Mohd Zamri Saad¹, and Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap⁵

1. Department of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnostics, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
2. Department of Pathology and Poultry Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq.
3. Department of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
4. Department of Community Health, College of Health and Medical Techniques, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Iraq.
5. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

Background and Aim: Epicatechin is a natural flavonoid found in green tea. It has been reported to possess an immense antioxidant effect which contributes to its therapeutic effect against a handful of ailments. In this review, we discuss its therapeutic role in the management of two of the most important human diseases; diabetes and cancer. The consumption of epicatechin has been shown to reduce blood glucose levels in diabetic patients, while is anticancer effect was attributed to its antioxidant properties, antiangiogenic and direct cytotoxicity to cancer cells. Although the exact mechanism of action of epicatechin is still being explored, there is no doubt that it is a promising candidate as an alternative. The significance of this review is to highlight the importance of the usage of natural products (in this case, epicatechin) as an alternative for the treatment of two potentially fatal diseases which is diabetes and cancer. The aim of this review is to educate the scientific community on the role of epicatechin in ameliorating the effects of diabetes and cancers on human while understanding the potential mechanisms of these aforementioned effects.

Keywords: angiogenesis, carcinoma, diabetes mellitus, epicatechin, oxidative stress.

How to cite this article: Abdulkhaleq LA, Assi MA, Noor MHM, Abdullah R, Saad MZ, Taufiq-Yap YH (2017) Therapeutic uses of epicatechin in diabetes and cancer, Veterinary World, 10(8): 869-872.

Received: 15-03-2017 Accepted: 13-06-2017 Published online: 06-08-2017

Corresponding author: Rasedee Abdullah E-mail: rasedee@upm.edu.my

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.869-872

Copyright: Abdulkhaleq, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.