British scientists hail haldi

British scientists have found the active agent in turmeric, the spice that colours and flavours many Asian meals, can block a cancer-promoting protein, reports The Guardian.

In a report titled 'Curry spice may protect against cancer', it says that 'The work at Swansea University's school of medicine and the Morriston hospital in the city builds on a growing body of worldwide evidence that turmeric, (known as haldi in India) powder from a plant of the ginger family, can help stave off cancers such as leukaemia, prostate cancer, skin cancer and colon cancer.'

'They want to follow up tests using cell cultures in the laboratory with trials of tablets on patients. This would involve giving volunteers 500mg tablets of the constituent known as curcumin each day for a week to see whether it inactivates the NF-kappaB protein which plays a key role in Barrett's oesophagus, a pre-cancerous condition, and oesophageal cancer, ' it says.

According to the report, a team in the US 'is hoping human trials could help lead to the development of a drug against Alzheimer's disease, while others hope its anti-inflammatory properties might also protect against Crohn's disease.'

It said that 'lower levels of some similar conditions among people living in Asia first sparked the interest in investigating

whether curry has protective properties.'

The Swansea team, which has previously found that increased NF-kappaB has helped tumour cells develop in several cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract, have been investigating how different substances with reputed anti-cancer properties deal with the protein, the article said.

According to The Guardian, resveratrol, a chemical in red wine which a recent Spanish study suggested helped drinkers reduce their chances of getting lung cancer, also blocked the protein, as did vitamin C and a chemical from green tea. Vitamin E and a chemical found in broccoli were far less successful.

However, the paper quotes Gareth Jenkins, a lead researcher in the project, as saying that rushing to the curry-house and washing the meal down with wine, will not be the way forward.

A number of spicy foods have recently also been found to contain illegal and potentially cancerous ingredients such as Sudan 1 and Para Red, and too much drinking increases the risk of gullet cancer.

"We are looking at the activity of just one protein, it is only one part of the whole cancer development process," the article quotes Dr Jenkins as saying.

"You would not want to encourage people to eat a takeaway every day to get the curcumin because they may die of heart disease."