Abstract: To further clarify the effects of the main compounds in white tea on blood glucose levels, the network pharmacology was used to conduct a correlation analysis between 8 main compounds in white tea and diabetes, and a zebrafish biological model was adopted for verification. The network pharmacology analysis reveals that blood glucose was primarily regulated by gallic acid, catechin group, and caffeine in white tea through four targets: TNF, p53, SRC and CASP3. The verification results of the zebrafish model show that the maximum tolerance concentrations of zebrafish to the different samples were as follows: 100.00 µg·mL^-1 (white tea soup), 6.25 µg·mL^-1 (gallic acid, caffeine), 12.50 µg·mL^-1 (EGCG), 25.00 µg·mL^-1 (ECG, EGC, GCG), 50.00 µg·mL^-1 (EC), and 150.00 µg·mL^-1 (C). At this concentration, the blood glucose values decreased significantly in all groups compared with the model group: the positive drug (ACA) group by 53.7%, the white tea soup group by 16.2%, the gallic acid group by 33.6%, the EGCG group by 47.3%, the ECG group by 30.0%, the EGC group by 52.6%, the GCG group by 25.8%, the EC group by 21.5%, and the C group by 29.4%. Only the caffeine group showed a significant blood glucose-elevating effect (P<0.05), with an increase of 16.9%. The qPCR results show that, compared with the blank group, the expression levels of TNF, SRC and CASP3 in the model group were significantly increased, while the expression level of TP53 was significantly decreased (P<0.05). Compared with the model group, the expression levels of TNF, SRC and CASP3 in the gallic acid and catechin groups were significantly decreased (P<0.05), while the expression level of TP53 was significantly increased (P<0.05). The expression levels of TNF and SRC in the caffeine group were significantly increased (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences in TP53 and CASP3. The results show that gallic acid and catechin components in white tea both exhibited significant hypoglycemic effects, which were mainly achieved by regulating four targets: TNF, p53, SRC and CASP3. In contrast, caffeine was found to have a significant blood glucose-elevating effect, primarily through TNF and SRC.

Key words: white tea, blood sugar, chemical compound, network pharmacology, zebrafish