Hot Pepper vs. Cancer
Project Summary – Author Dan Dou USA.
In recent years, the field of cancer research has shifted toward natural solutions for treatment and prevention because they have fewer dangerous side effects to the human body. With this is mind, the hypothesis of this experiment was that the level of “hotness,” or capsaicin level, of a hot pepper, would correlate to cancer cell killing activity. In order to test this, the researcher made pepper extracts from ten different pepper varieties with a wide range of spiciness levels, using nonpolar solvents to isolate the active compounds. In carefully controlled experiments, the student found that both fresh and dried pepper extracts were highly effective in killing cancer cells and inhibiting cell proliferation in leukemia and breast cells in vitro.
Filed Under: Health Benefits
