Even though EGCG (a compound in green tea) sticks really well to a human enzyme that adds methyl groups, its shape doesn’t line up right with the tiny magnesium ion the enzyme needs to work—so it can’t be properly methylated, making it a bad fit for the job.

EGCG, a compound in green tea, sticks really well to a human enzyme called COMT, but it doesn’t fit right for the enzyme to change it—so it blocks the enzyme instead of getting modified itself.

EGCG, a compound in green tea, sticks to the liver’s enzyme COMT much tighter than EGC, another tea compound—but once it’s stuck, it gets processed much more slowly.

Scientists think a compound in green tea called EGCG can stick to a human enzyme in four different ways, using four special parts of its structure that love to grab onto the enzyme like tiny magnets.

A compound in green tea called EGCG slows down a human enzyme that modifies estrogen, but it doesn’t block the enzyme’s main working spot—it sticks somewhere else to mess with how it works.

A compound in green tea called EGCG, along with a couple of its modified versions, can strongly block an enzyme in your body that breaks down important chemicals like dopamine—so much so that it takes just a tiny amount to do the job.