Rhubarb and custard may be a culinary favourite on this Fair Isle, but scientists are now claiming that it could have health benefits.
English garden rhubarb has been discovered to contain chemicals called polyphenols, which have been shown to selectively kill or prevent the growth of some cancer cells.
While polyphenols are found in a lot of fruits and vegetables, and even teas, this particular variety of rhubarb, grown in South Yorkshire, had been overlooked. Previous studies have concentrated on oriental medicinal rhubarb, which has been recognised for its health benefits and used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years.
Dr Nikki Jordan-Mahytype, who led the research at Sheffield Hallam University's Biomedical Research Centre, told Wired that the results would suggest that the specific polyphenol found in this rhubarb has "great anti-cancerous potential".
However, most importantly, baking the vegetable for 20 minutes dramatically increases the levels of these chemicals' effects.
The team hopes that the discovery could lead to the development of new cancer treatments and, in particular, are going to study whether the rhubarb's polyphenols, coupled with chemotherapy, can kill leukaemia cells that have previously proved resistant to treatment.
Dr Nikki Jordan-Mahy, from Sheffield Hallam University's Biomedical Research Centre, said: "Our research has shown that British rhubarb is a potential source of pharmacological agents that may be used to develop new anti-cancerous drugs." "Current treatments are not effective in all cancers and resistance is a common problem. Cancer affects one in three individuals in the UK so it's very important to discover novel, less toxic, treatments, which can overcome resistance."
Apologies: This article was originally published with a horrible speculative headline that got past our internal bullshit filters. We recieved feedback loud and clear from Wired.co.uk readers that they don't like horrible speculative headlines of this type and we'll do our best to make sure it doesn't happen again. - Michael Parsons
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
