International Specialty Supply
Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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International Specialty Supply Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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Souped-Up
Broccoli, Broccoli Sprouts Deter Cancers in Rats By Judy McBride USDA ARS Specially grown broccoli--containing hundreds of times more
selenium than grocery store varieties--protected laboratory rats against mammary
tumors in a Roswell Park Cancer Institute laboratory at Buffalo, N.Y. And high-selenium broccoli sprouts protected rats against
precancerous lesions in the colon in an Agricultural Research Service laboratory
in Grand Forks, N.D. Whether the findings translate to humans, either for
efficacy or safety, will require further study. John W. Finley, a nutritionist at ARS' Grand Forks Human Nutrition
Research Center, and colleagues recently reported the findings together with
Clement Ip at Roswell Park, Buffalo; Phil D. Whanger at Oregon State University,
Corvallis, and others. The broccoli heads and sprouts used in these studies were produced
for experimental purposes and are not available commercially. The rats were
given enough to approximate a human dose of about 200 micrograms daily. Several
human studies have shown that taking a 200 mcg-selenium supplement--that’s
about three times the Reference Daily Intake--can reduce the incidence of
several types of cancer. But it will not reverse tumors once they develop. The researchers enriched broccoli because it stores selenium in a
unique form, called SeMSC for short. It’s easy for people and animals to
convert SeMSC into the active anticancer agent compared to a much longer process
for other selenium compounds. In earlier studies, when Finley and co-workers
challenged rats with known carcinogens, the animals that had eaten the
high-selenium broccoli had far fewer precancerous colon lesions than the groups
given selenium salts--selenate or selenite. In the latest studies, Ip and coworkers at the Buffalo lab found a
similar protective effect of high-selenium broccoli against mammary tumors,
using a rat model for such tumors. The rats got about 30 times more selenium
from the specially grown broccoli than they would in a standard diet. Meanwhile, Finley and coworkers at the Grand Forks lab tested
high-selenium broccoli sprouts in a rat model for colon cancer and saw the same
protective effect they had earlier gotten with high-selenium broccoli. Found in
many health food stores, broccoli sprouts are known to be rich in other
anticancer compounds, but commercially available broccoli sprouts are not
enriched in selenium. ARS is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. |