Celery and parsley reduce the risk of breast cancer

Celery and parsley, both are abundant in health-benefiting nutrients. Recently, Researchers of Missouri University have shown that a substance “Apigenin” found in Celery and Parsley could reduce the risk of certain types of breast cancer tumors related with the hormone progestin. The recent study has been made by Salman Hyder, the Zalk Endowed Professor in Tumor Angiogenesis and professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. It is the first study which found that apigenin can give powerful punch against human breast cancer cells that had been affected by an assured chemical utilized in hormone replacement therapy.

Throughout this study, Hyder and his group implanted BT-474, cell of a deadly, high-developing human breast cancer, into dedicated breed of mouse. After then, they treated some of rats (mice) with Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), which is a type of progestin normally given to post-menopausal women, but they did not get MPA. After sometime they treated new group of MPA-treated rats with apigenin and then they saw that the Celery and Parsley substance, apigenin blocked new blood vessel formation, in this manner delaying and sometimes stopping, the growth of the tumors. They also showed that the compound decreased the overall number of tumors.

Apigenin reduced the growth of human breast cancer cells by three ways - by restraining cell proliferation, by inducing cell death and by decreasing expression of gene related with cancer development. The cancerous cells get their feeding from the host body by means of some specific blood vessels, and it has been found that these blood vessels in apigenin-treated mice were smaller in diameter than that of the untreated mice. Smaller vessels signify limited nutrient flow to the tumors and might have served to starve the cancer in addition to restraining its ability to spread.

Apigenin can be also found in the other natural sources like oranges, nuts, apples and other plant products. In the study, the rats were injected with apigenin. As per the study results, apigenin injections could be a safe substitute or supplement to the highly toxic chemotherapy drugs now in use. At high dosages, chemotherapy drugs can cause many side effects like hair-loss, extreme fatigue, while Apigenin has exposed no toxic side-effects even at high dosages.