Bioactive C₁₇and C₁₈ acetylenic oxylipins from terrestrial plants as potential lead compounds for anticancer drug development

Bioactive C17 and C18 acetylenic oxylipins have shown to contribute to the cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, and potential anticancer properties of terrestrial plants. These acetylenic oxylipins are widely distributed in plants belonging to the families Apiaceae, Araliaceae, and Asteraceae, and have shown to induce cell cycle arrest and/or apoptosis of cancer cells in vitro and to exert a chemopreventive effect on cancer development in vivo. The triple bond functionality of these oxylipins transform them into highly alkylating compounds being reactive to proteins and other biomolecules. This enables them to induce the formation of anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective phase 2 enzymes via activation of the Keap1–Nrf2 signaling pathway, inhibition of proinflammatory peptides and proteins, and/or induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress, which, to some extent, may explain their chemopreventive effects. In addition, these acetylenic oxylipins have shown to act as ligands for the nuclear receptor PPARγ, which play a central role in growth, differentiation, and apoptosis of cancer cells. Bioactive C17 and C18 acetylenic oxylipins appear, therefore, to constitute a group of promising lead compounds for the development of anticancer drugs. In this review, the cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects of C17 and C18 acetylenic oxylipins from terrestrial plants are presented and their possible mechanisms of action and structural requirements for optimal cytotoxicity are discussed

Organic food and health - status and perspectives

In a recent study it was investigated, through a well-controlled animal feeding experiment, whether conventional and organic food products showed differences in animal physiology of a type and magnitude that could indicate that organic products would affect humans differently. The primary, but still tentative conclusion from this study was that the most significant effects on rats was observed on health aspects that have rarely been assessed in prior studies: Immune status, sleep/activity pattern, accumulation of adipose tissue, liver function, and vitamin E status, while a large numbers of markers of “traditional” nutritional value showed no differences. Although the results of the present study could not directly be applied to organic and conventional production systems the observed differences were all in favour of the organic treatment, and thus pointed in the direction of potential health benefits when eating organically grown rather than conventionally grown food. However, this study like other studies related to the issue suffers from the fact that only one replication per food produce was used in the animal studies. Therefore the size of the effects could not be evaluated with respect to replication variation, which could have been determined by establishment of field trials. In addition, it was not possible to correlate the responses of the animals to the analysed diet composition due to the limited number of replicates, whereby the explanations of the effects were limited. Thus, it is of outmost concern that future investigations on the effect of organic food in relation to human health and well-being should be based on well-defined and controlled food produce system with replications

Carrot intake and risk of colorectal cancer:A prospective cohort study of 57,053 Danes

Carrots are consumed worldwide. Several meta-analysis studies on carrot consumption have indicated that carrots play a central role as a protecting vegetable against development of different types of cancers. A cancer-preventive role of carrots is plausible because they are the main dietary source of the bioactive polyacetylenic oxylipins falcarinol (FaOH) and falcarindiol (FaDOH), which have shown anti-proliferative and anti-inflammatory activity in numerous in vitro studies. In addition, purified FaOH and FaDOH have, in recent studies in colorectal cancer (CRC)-primed rats, demonstrated an anti-neoplastic effect in a dose-dependent manner. The mechanisms of action for this effect appears to be due to inhibition of pro-inflammatory and transcription factor biomarkers for inflammation and cancer. However, studies of the CRC-preventive effect of carrots in a large cohort are still missing. We therefore examined the risk of being diagnosed with CRC as predicted by intake of carrots in a Danish population of 57,053 individuals with a long follow-up. Self-reported intake of raw carrots at a baseline of 2–4 carrots or more each week (>32 g/day) was associated with a 17% decrease in risk of CRC with a mean follow-up of >18 years, compared to individuals with no intake of raw carrots even after extensive model adjustments (HR 0.83 CI 95% 0.71; 0.98). An intake below 2–4 carrots each week (<32 g/day) was not significantly associated with reduced risk of CRC (HR 0.93 CI 95% 0.82; 1.06). The results of this prospective cohort study clearly support the results from studies in cancer-primed rats for CRC and hence a CRC-preventive effect of carrots

Nyt projekt om sundhed af økologiske grøntsager

Et nyt forskningsprojekt skal klarlægge, om der er forskel på den sundheds- og spisemæssige kvalitet af økologisk og konventionelt dyrkede grøntsager