Carrots Reduce Cancer Risk?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A compound in carrots may reduce the risk of developing cancer, research reveals.

Experts have known carrots have anti-cancer properties, but the exact component of the vegetable with those special elements was unknown until now. Researchers from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England and Denmark found that falcarinol, a natural pesticide found in carrots, is the specific component that reduced the risk of developing cancer.

Researchers divided 24 rats with pre-cancerous tumors into three groups and fed them different diets. After 18 weeks, rats who consumed carrots with their ordinary feed as well as rats who consumed falcarinol with their feed — the same amount as contained in the carrots — were one-third less likely to develop full-scale tumors than the rats in the control group.

Falcarinol protects carrots from fungal diseases, such as licorice rot, which causes black spots on the roots during storage. Researchers suspect falcarinol is effective because it stimulates mechanisms in the body that fight cancer.

Researchers investigated the compound after a previous study suggested it could prevent the development of cancer.

Results could have a significant impact on both advice for health conscious consumers and recommendations for growers and may eventually aid in the development of anti-cancer drugs. Researchers conclude: “Our research allows us to make a more qualitative assessment of the vegetables that we are eating, rather than quantitative. We now need to take it a step further by finding out how much falcarinol is needed to prevent the development of cancer … For consumers, it may soon no longer be a case of advising them to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables per day but to eat particular types in certain quantities.”

To benefit from carrots, researchers recommend consumers eat one small carrot every day with other varieties of fruit and vegetables.

SOURCE: Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, published online Feb. 5, 2005