A mango a day can keep cancer away

LUCKNOW: Here���s some good news for mango lovers. Experts might soon suggest that ���a mango a day can keep cancer away���. Lupeol, a compound found in mangoes in a particular concentration possess anti-oxidant properties. This compound in mango is formed by nature with heat and water. It can prove highly helpful in the preventing cardiovascular diseases, cancer and even aging.
"Researches carried out in USA report that lupeol inhibits pancreatic cancer and regulated a number of processes involved in cancer development", said scientist Yogeshwar Shukla of Indian Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC).He further added that since mango is grown in large quantity in and around the city and with the incidence of pancreatic cancer at a rise, a need was felt to study the anti-cancer role of lupeol on the population as well as amount of lupeol present in different varieties of mangoes grown.
ITRC is now conducting experiments in this regard. In the experiment the mango pulp is fed to mice and the results are recorded. The results proved that lupeol is also effective against environmental toxins. The preliminary results also showed that lupeol was present in detectable amounts in the commonly grown varieties of mango.
"The research conducted all over is with the aim that lupeol, found in mango pulp after its extraction can be used either as a nutracutical, which can potentate the effect of other drugs or can be converted into a drug that will help kill the elements that cause cancer, especially pancreatic cancer", said Shukla.
The scientist elaborated that pancreatic cancer is an exceptionally aggressive disease, which is not easily detectable and has a low survival time. Surveys have proved that earlier 5 out of 1,000 cases were detected for pancreatic cancer but now they have risen between 15 to 20 cases. The treatment of this disease has largely been unsuccessful due to higher resistance offered by pancreatic cells to conventional approaches such as surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Therefore, a need arose for the development of new and effective chemotherapeutic agents which can target multiple pathways to induce responsiveness of pancreatic cancer cells to death signals. Our data suggested that lupeol can adopt a multi-prong strategy to target multiple signalling pathways leading to induction of apoptosis and inhibition of growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Lupeol hence could be a potential against pancreatic cancer.