31 Oct 2008

Scientists develop cancer fighting tomato

A purple tomato genetically engineered to contain nutrients more commonly seen in dark berries helped prevent cancer in mice, British researchers said on Sunday.

The finding, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, bolsters the idea that plants can be genetically modified to make people healthier.

Cancer-prone mice fed the modified fruit lived significantly longer than animals fed a standard diet with and without regular tomatoes, Cathie Martin and colleagues at the government-funded John Innes Center in Britain reported.

"The effect was much bigger than we had expected," said Martin, a plant biologist.
The study focused on anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant found in berries such as blackberries and blackcurrants that have been shown to lower risk of cancer, heart disease and some neurological diseases.

While an easy health boost, many people do not eat enough of these fruits, the researchers said.
Using genes that help color the snapdragon flower, the researchers discovered they could get the tomatoes to make anthocyanins -- turning the tomato purple in the process.

Mice genetically engineered to develop cancer lived an average of 182 days when they were fed the purple tomatoes, compared to 142 days for animals on the standard diet.


"It is enormously encouraging to believe that by changing diet, or specific components in the diet, you can improve health in animals and possibly humans," Martin said in a telephone interview.

The researchers cautioned that trials in humans are a long way off and the next step is to investigate how the antioxidants actually affect the tumors to promote better health.
But the findings do bolster research suggesting that people can significantly improve their health by making simple changes to the daily diet, other researchers said.

"It's exciting to see new techniques that could potentially make healthy foods even better for us," said Dr. Lara Bennett, science information officer at Cancer Research UK.
"But it's too early to say whether anthocyanins obtained through diet could help to reduce the risk of cancer."

Source : Reuters, UK

12 comments:

Unknown said...

ITS VERY GOOD TO SEE PURPLE TOMATO WITH CANCER FIGHTING TECHNOLOGY....USALLY FROM ANCIENT TIMES IT IS TOLD THAT USAL RED TOMATOES CAN FIGHT CANCER...BUT IT IS GOOD TO SEE G.E PURPLE TOMATOES...BUT THE THING IS THE AVAILABILITY OF THE PURPLE TOMATOES....AND THE EXPENSE OF THAT ....BUT SURE IN FUTURE IT IS OF MUCH DEMAND IN THE MARKET

NAREN ROCKS said...

please try to implement same idea on human beings

Unknown said...

This purple tomato is very gud discovery for fighting against cancer.....i m sure it will help for human in future also....

NAREN ROCKS said...

but there is information about the principle behind this discovery so please mention it then it will help for further discovries

NAREN ROCKS said...

but there are no purple colour tomatoes in market

Anonymous said...

mr. narender, it has been clearly mentioned int he article that these g.e. tomatoes are being tested on mice.
it wud take a long tym before u will find them in market.
so its better if u start doing something more constructive than searching these tomatoes in market.
such a dumb ass of biotechnology!

NAREN ROCKS said...

ok mr.Anonymous i will agree with you and i try to be more constructive in this matter

Anonymous said...

Happy to see headlines on cancer fighting tomato but what type of cancer?.. cancer of different origin differs,and treatment may not be same, just by eating tomatoes will it fight against the disease? next you have induced cnacer and tested in mice... how will you ditect in humans its almost silent disease, until stage two or one is reached, it cannot be detected symptomatically

Anonymous said...

ITS VERY GOOD BUT IS IT POSSIBLE TO GROW THESE TOMATOES AS THE RED TOMATOES ARE GROWN IN THE FIELD AS D SOIL HAS SAME NUTRIENT . WELL GOOD TO SEE THIS NEW DISCOVERY

NAREN ROCKS said...

ok but it is difficult to see these tomatoes in market as they are just restricted lab works thats all

Unknown said...

this is interesting to read.it will be more interesting to see if it is implemented in humans sooner than later.

NAREN ROCKS said...

hi thulasi ,

developing cancer fighting tomatoes is not an easy thing but any way they have developed but one thing it will useful if it woks on human benefial otherwise it will be again burden,
can u know something about u?????

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