Primary Studies on Acute Toxicity and Sedative/hypnotic Activity of Camellia kucha[J]. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis SunYatseni, 2010,49(1):76-79.
Primary Studies on Acute Toxicity and Sedative/hypnotic Activity of Camellia kucha[J]. Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis SunYatseni, 2010,49(1):76-79.DOI:
Kucha (Camellia kucha) is a special wild tea plant containing a great amount of theacrine (1
3
7
9tetramethyluric acid) besides caffeine and theobromine. Acute toxicity and sedative/hypnotic activity of Kucha were studied. The result showed that the LD50 of Kucha was more than 2150 gkg bw
suggested that the water extract of Kucha had no toxicity under our experimental conditions. Theacrine could obviously prolong the sleeping time of mice induced by pentobarbital sodium
while caffeine had the opposite exciting effect. When the contents of these two components were about similar in Kucha
no significant sedative and hypnotic effects or exciting effect was observed. However
when The contents of theacrine was 3 fold higher than that of caffeine
Kucha showed potent sedative and hypnotic properties.