Green tea with possessing iron chelating properties can be useful in TB treatment and management. We studied the effect of green tea consumption on iron status and improving process of pulmonary tuberculosis treatment (accelerating the negative sputum smear, reducing the level of oxidative stress). Following the approval by Ethics Committee for Human Studies of Golestan and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences and also obtaining the written consent of patients , this double-blinded randomized clinical trial study, was conducted on patients with TB, who were assigned randomly to the intervention group (41 patients) receiving 500 mg catechin of green tea extract and the control group (39 subjects) receiving placebo for two months, since the beginning of concomitant antiTB treatment . Sputum evaluation was carried out on three slides using the Ziehl Nelson method. At first, the demographic and dietary intake data were obtained. . After obtaining 10 ml of venous blood, Hemoglobin (Hb), Transferrin, Ferritin, Total iron binding capacity (TIBC), Iron and Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured at the beginning and end of the study. Sputum samples were collected from the third week (every 10 days) and the reduction of microbial load was also tested until sputum smear became negative.Data were processed using independent and paired t-test, McNemar, Wilcoxon, Kaplan-Meier, Log-rank test and Cox regression model. P-value was taken significant as <0.05.Average daily energy intake of patients was 1518±431 kcal, distribution of which was as follow: carbohydrates (58%), protein (17%) and fat (22%).
