关键词： 新型冠状病毒感染, 绿茶, 抗氧化剂, 表没食子儿茶素-3-没食子酸酯, 表儿茶素没食子酸酯, 原花青素二聚体, 牛奶

Abstract: In 2020,we reported that flavan-3-ol gallates (F3Gs),dimeric proanthocyanidins (PAs),and F3Gs and PA-rich extracts of green tea inhibited the activity of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2.Recently,we reported that F3Gs and other flavonoids inhibited the replication of human coronavirus 229E in human cells.In addition,a large number of articles reported the beneficial effects of green tea and flavonoids on the therapy of COVID-19.Since December 2020,we have continued to use demographic and ethno-pharmaceutical approaches to investigate the use of green tea during the recovery of COVID-19 volunteers in USA and Turkey.We collected data from more than 23 people who used green tea during their recovery at home in USA and five consented to report their recovery experience.We collected detailed recovery information from 100 volunteers (from 20-month to 96 years old) in Turkey,who only used green tea for their recovery without any medical assistance.A pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) analysis indicated a negative correlation between the recovery days and the daily green tea cups consumed by those Turkish volunteers.The more cups of tea they drank,the fewer days they needed for their recovery.Furthermore,the data of the annual per capita tea consumption (PCTC) were obtained from 208 and 100 countries in 2020 and 2021,respectively.Turkey had the highest PCTC values,3.0 and 3.4 kg in 2020 and 2021 and their COVID-19 death rates were lower than 1%.People in many countries of Latin America did not drink tea,while the death rates were relatively high.For example,Mexico had the highest death rate in 2020,about 11%.Furthermore,the average death rates of COVID-19 were calculated for 115 and 121 countries in 2020 and 93 countries in 2021.PCC analysis indicated a promising negative association between PCTC and death rates in these countries.The more tea infusions were consumed,the lower the death rates of COVID-19 occurred.These data indicate that the valuable benefit of tea especially green tea to help the recovery from COVID-19 and reduce death (All data were approved for publication by the institutional review board (IRB),the Ethic Commission for Un-Interventional Clinical Studies,and volunteers).

Key words: COVID-19, green tea, antioxidants, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, epicatechin-3-gallate, dimeric proanthocyanidin, milk