Inclusion complexes of (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECg) as well as (+)-gallocatechin gallate (GCg) and beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) in an aqueous solution were investigated using several NMR techniques and a computational method. ECg and EGCg formed a 1:1 complex with beta-CD, in which the A ring and a portion of the C ring were included from the wide secondary hydroxyl group side of the beta-CD cavity, and the B and B' rings were left outside the cavity. GCg formed a 1:2 complex with beta-CD, in which the A and B rings of GCg were included by two molecules of beta-CD. The difference between the two modes of inclusion of the 1:1 complex of ECg, EGCg.beta-CD and the 1:2 complex of GCg.beta-CD might have resulted from the size of the space between the B and B' rings in aqueous solution. As a result of nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) experiments, GCg was considered to have a large enough space between the B and B' rings to include the B ring in the beta-CD cavity; on the other hand, ECg and EGCg have no such large space.

An aqueous solution of equimolecular amounts of gallated catechin ( )-epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCg) and caffeine afforded a crude precipitate by creaming, which crystallized slowly for about three months at 10°C to give a colorless block crystal. The crystal was determined to be a 2 : 2 complex of EGCg and caffeine by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The 2 : 2 complex was formed with the cooperative effect of three intermolecular interactions, π-π and CH-π interactions, and intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Upon formation of the 2 : 2 complex, a caffeine molecule was captured by a hydrophobic space formed by the aromatic rings A, B, and B′ rings of two EGCg molecules. Judging from the entropy value, the shift value in the chemical shift of proton signals in 1 H-NMR spectra, the NT 1 value, and nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs), it was thought that the structure of complexes of EGCg and caffeine in aqueous solution were the same as their crystal structure.

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