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It has been shown to lower cholesterol, improve blood flow and protect against heart disease.

And now scientists believe green tea could be used to develop new drugs to fight cancer, the Daily Mail reports.

A chemical extracted from the beverage is an ideal carrier of proteins that combat the disease, according to research by the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Singapore.

Green tea is made up of a class of chemicals called catechins, the most abundant of which is EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate).

It is believed EGCG is responsible for green tea's health benefits and could have anti-cancer effects.

Dr Joo Eun Chung and his colleagues have shown anticancer protein Herceptin can combined with EGCG form a stable and effective complex to deliver a drug to a tumour site.

He said: 'When designing drug carriers, the drug to carrier ratio is an important consideration because the use of high quantities of carriers can result in toxicity as a consequence of poor metabolism and elimination of the carriers.

'However, these issues would be of less concern if both the drug and carrier had therapeutic effects. When injected into mice, the Herceptin loaded nanocomplex demonstrates better tumour selectivity and growth reduction, as well as longer blood half life, than free Herceptin.'

'It effectively protected the proteins against many obstacles from the point of administration to the delivery sites. The combined therapeutic effects of the green tea based carrier and the protein drug showed greater anticancer effect than the free protein.'