Eggplant, The Anti Cancers Night Shade Vegetable, Scientists show

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Eggplant, the nightshade vegetable may be considered a functional food for the prevention and treatment of cancers, some researchers suggested.

Cancers are class of chronic diseases caused alternation of DNA of healthy cells.

In other words, healthy cells become cancerous if they grow uncontrollably and disorderly out of range of a normal healthy cell population which can only divide between 40 and 60 times.

According to the Hayflick limit theory, most cells survival is totally dependent on the telomeres on the ends of each chromosome. 

Every time, healthy cells undergo division, the telomeres are shortened. Once the telomeres shorten to a critical length, the cells will die off.

In advance stage, traveling through fluid and blood circulation, most invasive cancer cells can infect healthy cells or tissue a distance away from the originated site.

According to the statistic provided the Canadian Health Service, In 2017, over 200,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer and 80,000 will die from cancer.

Sadly, 1 in 2 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime and 1 in 4 will die from the disease.

Lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers are the most common cancer found in Canadian, accounting for half of all cancers diagnosed.

And 60% of Canadians diagnosed with cancer will survive at least 5 years after their diagnosis.

Eggplant is a species of S. melongena, belonging to the family Solanaceae and native to India.

The plant has been cultivated in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory.

Eggplant is famous with its deep purple and the best eggplant can be found from August through October when it is in season.

Nutritional Supplements
1. Carbohydrates
2. Sugars
3. Fiber
4. Fat
5. Protein
6. Thiamine (Vitamin B1)
7. Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)
8. Niacin (Vitamin B3)
9. Pantothenic acid (B5)
10. Vitamin B6
11. Folate (Vitamin B9)
12. Vitamin C
13. Tryptophan
14. Manganese
15. Calcium
16. Copper
17. Iron
18. Magnesium
19. Phosphorus
20. Potassium
21. Zinc

Chemical constituents
The vegetable chemical compounds containing include sterols (i.e. typical plant sterols, androstane, pregnane and cholestane derivatives, steroidal alkaloids, and sapogenins), phytosterols, triterpenes, δ-amyrin, Chlorogenic acid, Nasunin, and other Polyphenolic compounds.

In the effort to find the plant-derived foods such as potatoes, eggplants, and tomatoes with potential antiproliferative activities against human colon (HT29) and liver (HepG2) cancer cells, researchers at the Yeungnam University conducted a study to evaluate series of structurally related individual compounds in these plants, using microculture tetrazolium (MTT) assay.

Glycoalkaloids solamargine and solasonine and their common aglycon solasodine; and the nonsteroidal alkaloid jervine isolated from eggplant were selected to test the anti cancers possibilities compared to other compound isolated from potatoes and tomatoes.

After taking into account other factors, researchers found that
* Glycoalkaloids derived from eggplant exerts the most active anticancer cells compared to others. However, its hydrolysis products are less active compared to glycoalkaloids.

* Compounds isolated from eggplant are very effective against the liver cancer cells compared to colon cancer cells.

Dr. Lee KR, the lead author on the final report said, “….safety considerations should guide the use of these compounds preventative or therapeutic treatments against carcinomas”.

Furthermore, the study to investigate the inhibitory effect of eggplant (Solanum melongena var. marunasu) extract on the human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 cell invasion of reconstituted basement membrane [Matrigel (MG)], researchers discovered

* Delphinidin, a flavonoid pigment contained in the peel demonstrates the most effective against human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 cell.

* Interestingly, application of eggplant extract and delphinidin did not affect tumor cell adhesion to MG or haptotactic migration to MG.

Further analysis of these effects, researchers found that the inhibition of cancer was attributed to
delphinidin of blocking the activity of Matrix metalloproteinases MMPs which are responsible for the degradation of most extracellular matrix proteins during organogenesis, growth and normal tissue turnover.

The findings suggested that the frequency of eggplant intake may associate to reduce the risk of cancers. However, further data collection on large example size and multi-center studies performed with human consumption of the whole food eggplant during the course of cancer will be necessary to complete the picture of eggplant and its bioactive ingredients anti-cancer possibilities.

Natural Medicine for Fatty Liver And Obesity Reversal – The Revolutionary Findings To Achieve Optimal Health And Lose Weight

Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition
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.

References
(1) Glycoalkaloids and metabolites inhibit the growth of human colon (HT29) and liver (HepG2) cancer cells by Lee KR1, Kozukue N, Han JS, Park JH, Chang EY, Baek EJ, Chang JS, Friedman M.(PubMed)
(2) Inhibitory effect of delphinidin from Solanum melongena on human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 invasiveness in vitro by Nagase H1, Sasaki K, Kito H, Haga A, Sato T.(PubMed)