indole-3-carbinol ....in broccoli, epigallocatechin gallate in green tea, curcumin fr
 

An author with a sceptical view of current drug development!.

"Disclosure: Bill Sardi has a financial interest in red wine pills."

But what ever your outlook on his view point, the claim that these substances can pass across cell walls is interesting as is their claimed ability to adddress a number of targets at the same time - always assuming the digestive system and does not do something else with them first. They are often reported as having impact in trials on cancer cells.

If you have not already looked a site called Life Extension has more information, a search on NCBI for trials and of course on the web.


RB




http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi44.html
ABSTRACT

Nature has better molecules

Italian researchers recently noted that there are some small molecules in nature that can be easily absorbed, can pass through the cell wall and into the cell nucleus where they can alter gene activity. The new innovative anti-cancer "drugs" researchers are talking about are indole-3-carbinol found naturally in broccoli, epigallocatechin gallate in green tea, curcumin from the spice turmeric, and resveratrol in red grapes, "all of which appear to have a number of different molecular targets, impinging on several signaling pathways." [Recent Results Cancer Research 166: 257–75, 2005] Translation: they potentially work better than man-made drugs.

What resveratrol can’t do?

One such miraculous molecule is resveratrol, known as a red wine molecule. Researchers P. Signorelli and R. Ghidoni of the University of Milan question whether drugs singularly targeted at certain genes will ever work. Natural molecules like resveratrol are able to silence or activate an array of cancer causing or suppressing genes. Resveratrol blocks several pathways involved in the development of tumors and inhibits all three stages of cancer, initiation (genetic mutation), growth and metastasis (spread), something no existing man-made anti-cancer drug can do. [Journal Nutritional Biochemistry 16: 449–66, 2005]

A recent research study involving resveratrol showed that it switched hundreds of genes at one time. [Cancer Biology Therapy 3: 882–89, 2004] John Pezutto, a noted cancer researcher from the University of Illinois, likens resveratrol to a "whiff that induces a biologically specific tsunami." [Cancer Biology Therapy 3: 889–90, 2004] Those are strong words from a usually reserved investigator.