The best way to discuss green tea products is to address them by category. The dozens of brands that have green tea supplements on the market, for instance, all claim a unique quality that separates them from the competition. But the reality is that they are all caplets, or capsules, or tablets, or powders used for beverages that contain green tea in some form along with other herbal and non-herbal additives.
Most supplements are for dietary purposes. Some advertise twenty pounds of weight loss achieved just by using the product for four to six weeks. They feature a certain amount of the antioxidants native to the green tea leaf, especially EGCG. Usually they have an overabundance of caffeine and include other herbal concentrates such as acai antioxidant and hoodia, both touted as appetite suppressants. The bodybuilding set has its own line of green tea supplements designed to contribute to muscle growth as well as fat reduction.
Green tea extract is a concentrated form of the tea. It is available in liquid form, as a liquid gel, as a beverage supplement in powder form and in an assortment of pill types. There are “standardized” versions of green tea extract that will claim content of 80% of polyphenols, or antioxidants, and perhaps 55% of EGCG, a critical flavonoid in green tea. Using multiplication you can assume that a 500 mg dose of green tea extract contains 275 mg of EGCG, etc. The dosage of these elements that achieves maximum effect remains open to speculation.
There are also uncounted types of topical facial treatments that contain green tea in some form for some purpose. There are facial toners, anti-aging wrinkle creams, serums, and moisturizers. There are also creams that feature retinol and green tea meant to restore facial tissue aged by the weather and loss of collagen.
And, lest we forget, there is the tea. It is available in standard tea bags, usually a box of 30 – 50, in its natural state or decaffeinated. NOW green tea is decaffeinated using some sort of non-chemical, carbon dioxide-based treatment that helps preserve all of the green tea health elements you can obtain just from the harvested leaf itself.