Green tea in dermatology.

The purpose of this brief review is to summarize all in vitro, in vivo, and controlled clinical trials on green tea preparations and their uses in dermatology. An extensive literature search was carried out to identify in vivo and in vitro studies as well as clinical trials. Twenty studies were assessed and the results suggest that oral administration of green tea can be effective in the scavenging of free radicals, cancer prevention, hair loss, and skin aging plus protection against the adverse effects associated with psoralen-UV-A therapy. Topical application of green tea extract should be potentially effective for atopic dermatitis, acne vulgaris, rosacea, androgenetic alopecia, hirsutism, keloids, genital warts, cutaneous leishmaniasis, and candidiosis. There are promising results with the use of green tea for several dermatologic conditions; however, the efficacy of oral and topical green tea has not always been confirmed.