Herbal Cayenne, the Anti Cancers Functional Food, Scientists Find

By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition

Scientists may have found a kitchen spice which processes a potential for reducing risk and treatment of cancers, some studies suggested.

Cancers are a class of chronic and medical conditions characterized by cells growth irregularly and disorderly.

Most cancers start on the surface of the inner lining of organ tissue. At this early stage, patients may not experience any symptoms.

At the later stage, most cancerous cells can travel a distance away from the original site to infect other healthy tissue via fluid and blood circulation.

As of today, researchers do not know the exact cause of cancer neither they know why people with the same health condition and family history, some are susceptible to DNA alternation in facilitating the onset of cancer, while others do not.

There are many prevalent risk factors associated with the cancer onset, depending on the primary location, including an increase of age, excessive alcohol consumption, exposure to chemical toxins and sunlight, and infectious pathogens.

Noticeably, in the study of “Dietary and Lifestyle Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer in Apparently Healthy Adults in Jordanian Hospitals” conducted by the joint investigation lead by the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Dr. Omran S, the led author said, “Colorectal cancer (CRC) risk is expected to continue rising due to dietary patterns, sedentary lifestyle, and other practices” and “Data was collected using a self-report questionnaire measuring sociodemographic characteristics, dietary habits, physical activity, and lifestyle risk factors of CRC. The mean age of participants was 57.0 ± 8.56 years. The majority of participants were male (71.8 %) and with less than secondary school formal education (60.7 %). The commonest risk factors for CRC among the participants were overweight or obesity (76.1 %), lack of exercise (71.6 %), limited consumption of vegetables (70.8 %), smoking (60.6 %), over-consumption of red meat (56.3 %), and diabetes mellitus (24.1 %)”.

These results suggested that by following a healthy diet with less saturated and trans fat, red meat and processed food and more in fruits and vegetables and lifestyle, the risk of cancers can be reduced substantially.

Cayenne is also known as Cayenne Pepper, a red, hot chili pepper, belonging to Capsicum annuum, the family Solanaceae, native to sub-tropical and tropical regions.

The spicy herb has been used in traditional medicine to increases metabolism, enhance circulatory system and stomach and the intestinal tract, adjust blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, treat frostbite, muscles, arthritis, rheumatism, low back pain, strains, sprains, bruises, and neuralgia, etc.

Chemical ingredients
The chemical constituents of Cayenne include capsaicin, capsacutin oil, solaine, xanthenes, oleic acid, palmitic acid, etc.

In the study to examine whether Capsaicin, a pungent phytochemical in a variety of red peppers processes an anti-proliferative effect on numbers of cancer, researchers at the Changhua Christian Hospital, launched an investigation of cell proliferation/viability and cytotoxicity of KB cells exposed to capsaicin.

On the human KB cancer cells, application of capsaicin exerted a significant effect in reducing cancer cell proliferation/viability and induced cell death in a dose-dependent manner compared to untreated control.d t

In cell cycle analysis, capsaicin inhibits cancer cell division n in cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase of KB cells.

Further analysis suggested that capsaicin growth inhibition of KB cells was attributed mostly in the induction of cell apoptosis, through disrupting the pathway associated with cancer cellular response in differentiation, proliferation, and survival.

Interestingly, in the concerns that diet pattern and selection may be associated with the risk of cancer onset, researchers at the Inst. of Cytology and Preventive Oncology (ICMR) launched an investigation to examine the effects of Indian diet’s many unique dietary constituents, including spices like chili pepper, cloves, black pepper and black cumin on the cancers’ risk.

Application of pungent spice including red pepper extract exerted a cell antiproliferative activity against the TE-13 (esophageal squamous cell carcinoma) cell line.

All extracts showed cytotoxic activity, but aqueous extracts of red pepper were found to be more potent than alcoholic extracts.

In morphological analysis, DAPI staining and DNA fragmentation assay, the aqueous extract of chili pepper at 300 μl/ml. demonstrated maximum cell death and apoptotic cell demise (88%) to occur within 24 hours compared to other pungent spicy extracts.

The finding suggested that herbal Cayenne containing a high amount of capsaicin may be considered a functional food and an adjunct therapy for reducing the risk of cancers with no side effects.

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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.

References
(1) Capsaicin induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human KB cancercells by Lin CH, Lu WC, Wang CW, Chan YC, Chen MK. (PubMed)
(2) Cytotoxic potential of Indian spices (extracts) against esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. (PubMed)
(3) Dietary and Lifestyle Risk Factors for Colorectal Cancer in Apparently Healthy Adults in Jordanian Hospitals by Omran S1, Barakat H2, Muliira JK3, McMillan S. (PubMed)