Conference paper presented at the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS) Annual Meeting & Expo, May 2004. Theme: Cost-Effective Methods to Address the Leading Causes of Death & Chronic Diseases. Components of garlic consumed in reasonable amounts could prevent/suppress breast cancer significantly.
High consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with decreased risk of cancer at most sites. Allium vegetables, particularly garlic (Allium sativum) has had an important dietary and medicinal role for centuries and there are some specific data on their anti-cancer activity in recent literature. In addition there is evidence for their lipid-lowering, anti-platelet aggregatory, immunomodulatory, and antioxidative activity. All these activities may have a bearing on prevention of breast cancer as well. Recent studies in our laboratory have shown that fresh garlic extract induced apoptosis in four different breast carcinoma cell lines. Depending on the concentration, garlic extract induced apoptosis after 2-6 hrs exposure. Under similar conditions doxorubicin required 48-72 hrs. to induce apoptosis. Normal fibroblast cells and colon and prostate cancer cell lines showed little or no apoptosis under the same conditions. There seems to be some specificity for breast cancer cell lines. Based on these results and anti-cancer activities described for garlic in the literature, we hypothesize that components of garlic consumed in reasonable amounts could prevent/suppress breast cancer significantly. Further research is underway to identify the active principle(s) of the garlic extract and the mechanistic pathway that is responsible for apoptosis of breast carcinoma cells. Extracts of flowers of shallots and chives also have shown anti-cancer activity in vitro. Results of ongoing research in the area will be discussed.
By Dr. Goswala Sivam, Bastyr University, USA. Posted July 2, 2008.
