Common curry spice kills off cancer cells
October 28, 2009
A spice commonly used in curry dishes has been proven to have the ability to kill off cancer cells. The turmeric spice recognizable because of its bright yellow colour has been shown to trigger cancer cells to kill themselves or quite literally to digest themselves.
A team of scientists at Cork Cancer Research Centre have been testing the chemical curcumin that is found in turmeric on gullet cancer cells and have just published their results in the British Journal of Cancer. The cells start to die off within twenty-four hours of being exposed to the curcumin claims Dr. Sharon McKenna. She said that the compound triggered a death signal within the faulty cells which triggered them to destroy themselves. Scientists have long believed that curcumin has had the power to heal some ailments and is currently also being tested to see if it helps with dementia and arthritis.
Curcumin will now join the list of natural compounds that can be used when it comes to treat cancerous cells. Dr. Lesley Walker says that the compounds found in the curry spice could now be developed to combat the rise in cases of oesophageal cancer. It is now the countries sixth most deadly cancer with an average of 7,800 people being diagnosed every year. Since the 1970s the rates of oesophageal cancer have risen by more than fifty percent and many doctors blame a rise in obesity and an increase in alcohol consumption.
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