Dried Tomatoes to Fight Prostate Cancer
Reported June 02, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) New research suggests preventing prostate cancer may not only be linked to what you eat, but the form of your food.
In a recent study reported in the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, scientists studied different tomato products. Processing of many edible plants through heating, grinding, mixing or drying dramatically increases their nutrition value, including their cancer prevention potential. It appears that the greatest protective effect from tomatoes comes by rehydrating tomato powder into tomato paste, Valeri V. Mossine, Ph.D., research assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Missouri, was quoted as saying.
Research shows FruHis, an organic carbohydrate present in dehydrated tomato products, exerts a strong protective effect against prostate cancer. Rats fed rehydrated tomato paste with added FruHis had the longest survival rate of cancer at 51 weeks, whereas those in the control group survived 40 weeks. On post-mortem exam, prostate tumors were found in 10 percent of rats fed the combination of tomato paste and FruHis, and in 60 percent of control group rats.
Previous research has revealed the cancer-preventing power of lycopene, a carotenoid present in tomatoes and tomato products. This study revealed that lycopene, combined with FruHis, stopped cancerous cell growth more than 98 percent of the time.
FruHis may represent a novel type of potential dietary antioxidant, Dr. Mossine said. Experiments like these suggest that a combination of FruHis and lycopene should be investigated as a potential therapeutic anti-tumor agent, not just a prevention strategy.
SOURCE: Cancer Research, 2008;68
