Article by Palm Oil Truth Foundation
A key natural compound in palm oil that can kill breast cancer cells have been discovered by scientists in Singapore.
Announcing this exciting development, the Davos Life Science Singapore, a research and development center today, the research center said: “The compound, called gamma-tocotrienol, which was extracted in its natural form from palm oil, demonstrated powerful cancer-killing properties.”
In a statement today, the centre said the compound could be found at low levels in food sources such as palm oil.
The centre said its scientists partnered with the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong and the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre in conducting the cancer study.
The study showed during in-vitro experiments, the natural compound demonstrated greater potency than ‘Docetaxel’, a commonly-used chemotherapy drug used to treat breast cancer. This was the first tocotrienol study to identify the key upstream regulators that mediated breast cancer progression and invasion, the centre said.
The compound was also found to suppress the invasive ability of breast cancer cells to spread to other organs via metastasis.While the doses of gamma-tocotrienol showed positive anti-cancer effects, they did not affect the normal cell functions of healthy cells, the study found.
Davos Life Science was set up in 2004, as a manufacturer that isolates and purifies natural tocotrienol, for use in supplements, functional food, personal care and pharmaceutical formulations. It has established the world’s largest R&D centre dedicated to tocotrienol and the world’s largest manufacturing facility for the production of natural tocotrienol.
In the view of the Palm Oil Truth Foundation, the findings of Davos Life Science only confirms what the foundation has been positing for some time – palm oil is a natural edible oil that is great for health which has been mystifyingly selected for demonization by certain quarters. Certainly, organizations with questionable motives and bona fides such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) which despite its altruistic sounding name appear to exist only to carry out what appears to be fully funded and sponsored spurious attacks against certain industries at the behest of competing industries have a lot of explaining to do, in the light of this and many other scientific findings published in peer reviewed journals.
Other studies have corroborated Davos Life Science scientists findings that palm oil, as compared to saturated fats and oils, may help fight cancer, especially breast cancer[1]
This may be due to tocotrienols[2] or other phytonutrients[3] present in palm oil. Indeed, Professors K. K. Carroll of the Centre for Human Nutrition at the University of Western Ontario and David Kritchevsky of the Wistar Institute recently concluded that evidence from animal and in vitro studies indicate that tocotrienols of palm oil are effective anti-cancer agents and provide adequate justification for clinical trials in human cancer patients. Palm oil is the only vegetable oil available on the world market that naturally contains tocotrienols. THE END.
Editor’s Note: To learn more read: “The Truth About Palm Oil” at
http://www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=329&Itemid=811
References:
1. Hussein, et al., “Effect of dietary palm oil and its minor components on dimethyl-hydrazine (DMH) induced colon cancer in rats,” PIPOC 255 (1999); Nesaretnam, et al., “The effect of vitamin E tocotrienols from palm oil on chemically-induced mammary carcinogenesis in female rats,” 12 Nutr. Res. 63 (1992); Sundram, et al., “Effect of dietary palm oils on mammary carcinogenises in female rats induced by 7,12 dimethyl-benz(a)anthracene,” 49 Cancer Res. 1447 (1989) (palm oil exhibits protective effect in rat model of mammary cancer); Sylvester, et al., “Comparative effects of different animal and vegetable fats fed before and during carcinogen administration on mammary tumorigenesis, sexual maturation and endocrine function in rats,” 46 Cancer Res. 757 (1986).2. Nesaretnam, “Tocotrienols inhibit the growth of human breast cancer cells irrespective of estrogen receptor status,” 33 Lipids 461 (1998); Elson, “Tropical Oils: Nutritional and Scientific Issues,” 31 Crit. Rev. Food Sci. & Nutr. 79 (1992); Cottrell, “Introduction: nutritional aspects of palm oil,” 53 Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 989S (1991). 3. Guthrie, et al., “Palm oil tocotrienols and plant flavonoids act synergistically with each other and with tamoxifen in inhibiting proliferation and growth of estrogen receptor-negative MDA-MB-435 and -positive MCF-7 human breast cancer cells in culture,” 6 Asia Pacific J. Clin. Nutr. 41 (1997).
Palm Oil Truth Foundation (TRUTH Foundation) is an international non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation, without strings to the world of commerce and power. We are a people organisation, organised for the people and founded upon the principles of integrity and responsibility as a global citizen with the sole purpose of representing TRUTH to the global community about health, environmental and economic benefits of palm oil.
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