Cauliflower juice can prevent breast cancer, Italian study says

• Cauliflower is a member of the Brassicaceae mustard/cabbage family that includes brussels sprouts and broccoli, and a raft of studies have already suggested these ubiquitous winter vegetables could be an important source of health benefiting compounds.
• Investigating their chemoprotective effects, scientists at the University of Urbino claim to have discovered the mechanism of action by which Brassica oleracea (cauliflower) may offer protection against breast cancer.
• "Cell growth inhibition was accompanied by significant cell death at the higher juice concentrations," they report in the June issue of The Journal of Nutrition.
• The scientists stressed that they found all cauliflower varieties tested suppressed cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner.
• And of significant interest, they revealed that the cauliflower compounds had a particular preference for targeting breast cancer cells, compared with other mammalian cell lines investigated.
• These findings build on mounting evidence that suggests compounds found in fruit and vegetables, notably green leafy vegetables, could help the body fight a raft of diseases.
• Benefiting from the research, the food industry is enjoying strong growth for food formulations that absorb health-fighting compounds, with a dynamic fruit and vegetable extracts market.
• The ¬819.9 million European and US fruit and vegetable extracts and powders market is on course to grow 4.5 per cent annually, reaching ¬1.07 billion by 2009, estimate market analysts Frost & Sullivan.
• Juice markedly reduced DNA synthesis, starting from low concentrations (final concentration 5--15 mL/L), and this activity was independent of ER.
• "These results suggest that the edible part of Brassica oleracea contains substances that can markedly inhibit the growth of both ER+ and ER-- human breast cancer cells, although through different mechanisms.
• These results suggest that the widely available cruciferous vegetables are potential chemopreventive agents," conclude the researchers.