Everything kills melanoma...Take 4:

Those of you who have hung around this blog for a while may be familiar with this post variation.  I occasionally note "discoveries" of things that kill melanoma and a wide variety of other cancers.  They range from coffee to strawberry juice to snake venom to mushrooms. I have left off many...starfish snot comes to mind.  Here are a few of the prior installments:

Everything Cures Melanoma...so why do we have it?

One mo one!

Snake Venom and Sophora Root

And now there's this:

Chemistry and Anticarcinogenic Mechanisms of Glycoalkaloids Produced by Eggplants, Potatoes, and Tomatoes.  J Agric Food Chem.  March 2015.  Friedman.

"Inhibition of cancer can occur via apoptosis, a genetically directed process of cell self-destruction that involves numerous biomarkers and signaling pathways.  Glycoalkaloids are nitrogen-containing secondary plant metabolites found in numerous Solanaceous plants including eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes.  Exposure of cancer cells to glycoalkaloids produced by [these foods] or their hydrolysis products inhibits the growth of the cells in culture [read petri dish] as well as tumor growth in vivo [read lab rat of some sort]. "

Friedman notes that compounds in these three foods cause apoptosis (cell death) in bone, breast, cervical, colon, gastric, glioblastoma, leukemia, liver, lung, lymphoma, melanoma, pancreas, prostate, and squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Then Friedman goes on to say..."The described results may make it possible to better relate the structures of the active compounds to their health-promoting function, individually, in combination, and in food, and allow the consumer to select glycoalkaloid-containing food with the optimal content of nontoxic beneficial compounds."

Well, damn!!!  If I had only eaten more taters, maters, and aubergines I wouldn't be in my current pickle!!!!  Seriously, those are diet staples in my world.  Ask B and Janara about the quantities of egg plant I eat and prepare for friends and family!!!!

On the other hand....if a miracle treatment can be derived to treat any cancerous malady from the most unassuming plant or other source....that would be fabulous.  After all, Vincristine, a powerful chemotherapeutic agent listed as one of the world's most essential medicines by the WHO, comes from the lowly periwinkle.

It pays to smell the flowers! - c