Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Anti-cancer Properties of Grapes

Over the past few days I have been eating red grapes with seeds. I actually crunch and swallow the seeds. I recall from my organic biochem lectures that seeds especially from grapes and other fruits are a good source of cynanide. Cyanide is not only a neurotoxic agent is is also very cytotoxic. Then the idea suddenly hit me. From my medical practice days I recall one patient who had a massive ulcerating inoperable cancer of the tongue. She presented me with a vial of a solution which she was receiving from Germany which I injected intramuscular at weekly intervals over a 9-12 month period. It was called laetrile and the active component was cyanide. This was a very interesting patient. When I was on holidays for 2 weeks she went to the hospital emergency Dept. were the doctor who saw her discontinued the laetrile . It is unknown whether this regime change was responsible for her death which occurred within a month.
Now it is generally accepted that wines especially red wines have anticancer properties by not only protecting individuals from getting cancer but also by killing the cancer cells because of their anti-tumor properties. The active pharmaceutical in grapes appears to be flavones and the mechanism of protection is through the free radical scavenging and/or anti-oxidant neutralization mechanisms.
There appears to be some disagreement on which wines have better anti-tumor properties- the red or white. Maybe the dilemma resides not in the concentration of flavones but the cyanide content. The wine industry may unknowingly be crushing seeds and releasing cyanide into those fermenting juices. It might be beneficial to do a cyanide test of the latter.
In the meantime I will continue to eat grapes with seeds as well as seedless grapes so as to avoid cyanide poisoning, as well as alternately sipping the red as well as white wines.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home