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Super-Broccoli
Bred to Fight Cancer
May 25 2000.
SUPER-BROCCOLI bred from garden broccoli and a wild Sicilian variety is the
latest veggie to hold out anti-cancer promise. The team that developed
super-broccoli at the John Innes Centre at the Institute of Food Research in
Norwich, England now have two commercial partners.
"The super-broccoli looks and tastes the same as ordinary broccoli,"
says Gary Williamson, a member of the research team that bred the plant.
Compared with regular broccoli, super-broccoli contains 10 to 100 times as much
sulphoraphane, the substance that helps to neutralize cancer-causing agents in
the gut.
This makes super-broccoli as potent as broccoli
sprouts -- and the new broccoli may be more convenient to market, prepare
and eat.
Sulphoraphane is found in all cabbage-family plants (brassicas),
which run from cabbage, collard greens and kale to brussel sprouts and
cauliflower. Broccoli has the most sulphoraphane.
As the broccoli is digested, it releases
sulphoraphane in the gut. This steps up production of glutathione transferases
-- powerful enzymes that destroy cancer-causing substances in foods such as
broiled and barbecued meat.
Trials with human volunteers will begin soon to
see how much effect the super-broccoli has in the gut and the bloodstream
compared with ordinary broccoli. The researchers hope to show that the
super-broccoli is better at protecting the DNA in cells from aging.
A lot of evidence already suggests that a diet high in
vegetables protects against cancer of the colon. For prostate cancer, some
evidence (like the JNCI article listed in our sidebar) suggests that it too may
be prevented or held in check by a diet high in green vegetables as well as by
lycopene in tomatoes,
watermelon, and strawberries.
The researchers are at pains to stress that
super-broccoli is not a genetically modified (GM) plant. "No gene has been
inserted through genetic modification," Richard Mithen, a research team
member, Told Reuters. "This is classical breeding. But we speeded that
breeding program up by using DNA fingerprinting technology.''
LINKS
Proc Natl Acad Sci U
S A 1997 Sep 16;94(19):10367-72 Broccoli sprouts: An exceptionally rich source
of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens by Jed W.
Fahey, Yuesheng Zhang, and Paul Talalay. Abstract
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Article
"all types of
cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, may be protective against
cancer due to their glucosinolate content." Adv Exp Med Biol 1999 Brassica
vegetables and cancer prevention. van Poppel G, et al. Nutrition and Food
Research Institute, The Netherlands.
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