Carrots, the Veggies with Anti Cancer Potential, Researchers Find

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Carrot, the root veggie may have a potential and positive effect in blocking the proliferation of cancer cells, some scientists suggested.
 

Cancer is a class of chronic and medical diseases characterized by irregular and disordered cell growth in one or some tissue and organs in the body.

Most cancers start from the inner lining of the tissue of the organs then slowly spread to the deeper parts of the infected organs. At the advanced stage, most malignant cancer cells can travel a distance away from the original site to infect other healthy tissue and organs.

Most cancer diagnosed in the early have a 100%  5 years survival rate.

According to the statistic provided by the Canadian public health service, during their lifetime, nearly 1 in 2 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer, and 1 in 4 will die from the disease.

Lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers account for half of all cancers diagnosed in Canada and over 25% of all cancer deaths in Canada are due to lung cancer.

The causes of cancers are unknown, however, scientists in the world agreed that there are several risk factors such as gene mutations inherited from the parents and acquired gene mutations caused by smoking, radiation, viruses, chemicals carcinogens, obesity, hormones, chronic inflammation, and physical inactivity are associated to the early onset of cancer.

Carrot, a root vegetable with an orange color is a subspecies of Daucus carota, belonging to the family Apiaceae, native to Asian and Europe.

In the investigation of the claim of Lebanese folk medicine that Daucus carota, also known as wild carrot has a potency for treatment of various types of cancer, researchers at the Lebanese American University, conducted an experience to identify the major compound responsible for the anti-cancer activity of DCOE.

β-2-himachalen-6-ol, a novel sesquiterpene unique to β-2-Himachalen-6-ol isolated from the Lebanese wild carrot demonstrated potent anti-cancer activity against B16F-10, Caco-2, MB-MDA-231, A549, and SF-268 cancer cells (IC50 13-4µg/ml; 58-18µM), and SF-268 cells.

Furthermore, the sesquiterpene was shown to induce cell death through apoptosis (flow cytometry), decrease 2D cell motility (wound healing assay) and 3D invasion, as well as increase cell adhesion in SF-268 cells.

Additionally, β-2-himachalen-6-ol showed very low toxicity.

These results suggested that wild carrot β-2-himachalen-6-ol may have a potential multi-mechanistic chemotherapeutic drug with high potency and safety.

Moreover, in the concerns of the mortality rate caused by gastric cancer, researchers at the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences conducted a review by searching the multiple databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Persian databases like Scientific Information Database (SID) and IranMedx to determine the relationship between carrot consumption and gastric cancer.

Out of 81 articles found in the databases, only 5 studies satisfied the medical guidelines and criteria were included in the review. after taking into account co and confounders, researchers found that

* Intake of carrot regularly reduced the risk of gastric cancer by 26%.

* There is an inverse relationship between the consumption of carrots and the risk of gastric cancer.

More interestingly, regarding the inconsistent results. associated with carrot intake and prostate cancer risk, researchers at the Zhejiang University also launched a review by searching the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, the Cochrane register, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure to determine whether intake of carrot may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

At the final report, researchers found that
* Intake of carrot is associated with a significantly decreased risk of prostate cancer with the odds ratio of 0.82 which is consistency with the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences study.

* Forr each serving per week or 10 g per day increment of carrot intake, the odds ratio of the risk of prostate cancer was 0.95, according to the dose-response meta-analysis.

The findings indicated that intake of carrot may have a potential effect in reducing the risk of the onset of cancers. 

However, due to the limited number of cohort studies and substantial heterogeneity observed between studies in this meta-analysis, further well-designed prospective studies are warranted to confirm the findings from the studies.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it’s news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada – Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1)β-2-himachalen-6-ol: A novel anticancer sesquiterpene unique to the Lebanese wild carrot by Taleb RI1, Najm P2, Shebaby W2, Boulos JC2, Demirdjian S2, Hariri E2, El-Sibai M2, Daher C2, Mroueh M3(PubMed)
(2) Effect of Carrot Intake in the Prevention of Gastric Cancer: A Meta-Analysis by Fallahzadeh H1, Jalali A2, Momayyezi M1, Bazm S3.(PubMed)
(3) Dietary carrot consumption and the risk of prostate cancer. by Xu X1, Cheng Y, Li S, Zhu Y, Xu X, Zheng X, Mao Q, Xie L.(PubMed)