SCOTTISH scientists claim to have found a chemical in green tea that has been used to successfully treat two types of skin cancer.

The extract, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), has no impact when consumed in tea but when applied to cancerous cells in laboratory tests it shrank or removed two-thirds of tumours it was used on within one month.

Experts at Strathclyde and Glasgow universities found it had no side-effects on other cells or tissue.

They created a cell with EGCg and transferrin, a protein that naturally targets and latches on to the surface of cancer cells, and applied it to tumours.

Tests were done on two types of skin cancer: epidermoid carcinoma which forms like scales on the surface of the skin and melanoma, which often develops in people who have moles on their skin.

In both studies, published in the medical journal Nanomedicine, 40% of tumours vanished, while 30% of tumours in carcinoma cases and 20% in melanoma cases shrank.

A further 10% of melanoma tumours were stabilised, so did not grow or shrink.

Anti-cancer properties of EGCg were established in earlier laboratory tests elsewhere.

Lead researcher Dr Christine Dufes, from Strathclyde, said: "These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and effective cancer treatments."