Cancer

“Eating a daily portion of broccoli sprouts could help tame the H. pylori bacteria, linked to stomach ulcers and even cancer, research suggests.

The study in Cancer Prevention Research of 50 people in Japan found eating 2.5 ounces of broccoli sprouts each day for two months may confer some protection.”

BBC News
6 April 2009
Baby broccoli controls ‘gut bug’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7981095.stm

“Daikon and radish were analyzed at the seed and sprouted-seed stage to identify cultivars high in the anti-cancer glucosinolate, glucoraphenin. Of the cultivars tested, ‘Cherry Belle’ and ‘Black Spanish’ maintained highest levels of glucoraphenin. Levels were highest in seed, and decreased with increasing sprout age. Decline in concentration was largely due to dilution associated with cell expansion, and partly due to other mechanisms. Differences in the latter appear to have impact on anti-cancer potential.

Analysis of mature daikon and radish tissue (roots and shoots) indicated that the principal glucosinolate in roots of all cultivars was glucodehydroerucin, which is estimated to have one tenth of the potency of glucoraphenin, the principal glucosinolate found in seeds and young sprouts. By contrast, the principal glucosinolates present in mature shoots were glucoraphanin and glucoraphenin, both potent anti-cancer agents. Shoots were estimated to have approximately 20 times the anti-cancer potential of roots.”

O’Hare Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland Horticulture Institute, Gatton Research Station
RIRDC Project No DAQ-342A, June 2007
Daikon, A Promising Anti-Cancer Vegetable
O’Hare, Tim

“Daikon and radish sprouts contain high levels of glucoraphenin, a glucosinolate which hydrolyses to form sulphoraphene. Sulphoraphene, like sulphoraphane from broccoli, is a potent inducer of phase 2 detoxification enzymes and consequently has potential anti-cancer action. Unlike broccoli however, daikon and radish do not possess epithiospecifier protein, a protein that inhibits conversion of glucosinolates to isothiocyanates, and consequently they may represent more suitable sources of phytochemicals with anti-cancer potential. Concentrations of glucoraphenin were highest in the seed, declining exponentially with sprout development. The rate of decline was observed to vary considerably between varieties of daikon and radish, with some varieties maintaining significantly high levels of glucoraphenin.”

ISHS Acta Horticulturae
765: XXVII International Horticultural Congress – IHC2006: International Symposium on Plants as Food and Medicine: The Utilization and Development of Horticultural Plants for Human Health.
Glucosinolate Compostition and Anti-Cancer Potential of Daikon and Radish Sprouts
T.J. O’Hare, L.S. Wong, L.E. Force, C.B. Gurung, D.E. Irving, D.J. Williams

“A few forkfuls of sprouted vegetables could help protect against cancer, new research by Professor Ian Rowland and Chris Gill has shown.

Eating just over 100 grams of tasty sprouted vegetables every day for a fortnight has been shown to have clear protective effects against DNA damage in human blood cells, according to the researchers.

“DNA damage is associated with cancer risk. Sources of DNA damage include diet-related carcinogens, and bodily processes like oxidative stress – and the raw sprouts protect against this kind of damage.

“And just a portion – 113 grammes – per day of a mix of broccoli, radish, alfalfa and clover
sprouts was enough in our tests to show the protective effect,” said Professor Rowland.”

News Release from University of Ulster
21 June 2004
Super Sprouts Could Help Reduce Cancer Risk
University of Ulster Department of Communication and Development
(http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2004/1213.html)

“The research of Fahey et al. (13) aims to identify specific phytochemicals in Brassica vegetables that may confer protection and the mechanisms by which they do so. The hypothesis underlying this work is that certain phytochemicals might raise the activity of enzyme systems that detoxify carcinogens. Several enzyme systems oxidize, reduce, or hydrolyze (phase 1) and then conjugate or otherwise affect (phase 2) drugs, metabolites, carcinogens, and other toxic chemicals, thereby increasing their polarity and excretability. Phase 1 enzymes activate or deactivate carcinogens, depending on the experimental conditions. Phase 2 enzymes are more likely to detoxify. For 20 years, consumption of cruciferous vegetables has been known to induce enzyme detoxification in experimental systems (12).

Such observations have led Paul Talalay and his colleagues (14-16) to conduct an elegant series of studies on the effects of cruciferous vegetable extracts on phase 2 enzyme induction and animal tumorigenesis. They have developed an in vitro assay to distinguish bifunctional phytochemicals that induce both phase 1 and phase 2 enzyme systems from monofunctional phytochemicals that induce only phase 2 enzymes. They then used this assay to demonstrate that Brassica vegetables are particularly rich sources of monofunctional phase 2 inducers (14) and to identify the isothiocyanate sulforaphane as the principal phase 2 inducer in broccoli extracts (15). They also have demonstrated that sulforaphane is a dose-related inhibitor of carcinogen-induced mammary tumorigenesis in rats (16).
These impressive accomplishments now have been extended to identify phase 2 inducer activity in sprouts of broccoli and in mature plants. Most of this activity derived from the glucosinolate precursor of sulforaphane, glucora-phanin. Because no net synthesis of phase 2 inducers occurs after sprouting, their concentration decreases as the plant grows. Extracts of broccoli sprouts contain 10-100 times the phase 2 inducer activity of mature broccoli plants and are more efficient inhibitors of rat tumorigenesis. In contrast, mature broccoli also contains significant amounts of indole compounds that induce phase 1 as well as phase 2 enzymes. Thus, sprouts would appear to offer at least two anticarcinogenic advantages over mature broccoli: they contain higher concentrations of inducers, and the inducers mainly affect phase 2 enzyme systems. On this basis, Fahey et al. (13) conclude that small amounts of cruciferous vegetable sprouts may be just as protective against cancer as larger amounts of mature plants of the same variety.”

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
1997 Oct 14;94(21):11149-51
Broccoli sprouts as inducers of carcinogen-detoxifying enzyme systems: clinical, dietary, and policy implications.
Nestle M. Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University

“JOHNS HOPKINS SCIENTISTS have found a new and highly concentrated source of sulforaphane, a compound they identified in 1992 that helps mobilize the body’s natural cancer-fighting resources and reduces risk of developing cancer.
“Three-day-old broccoli sprouts consistently contain 20 to 50 times the amount of chemoprotective compounds found in mature broccoli heads, and may offer a simple, dietary means of chemically reducing cancer risk,” says Paul Talalay, M.D., J.J. Abel Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacology.
Talalay’s research team fed extracts of the sprouts to groups of 20 female rats for five days, and exposed them and a control group that had not received the extracts to a carcinogen, dimethylbenzanthracene. The rats that received the extracts developed fewer tumors, and those that did get tumors had smaller growths that took longer to develop.”
Press Release: John Hopkins University
15 Sept. 1997
Cancer Protection Compound Abundant in Broccoli Sprouts
Kusinitz, Marc
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/1997/SEPT/970903.HTM