Study: Apple Procyanidins Linked to Reduced Colon Cancer Risk

French Study Is Latest to Link Apples to Digestive Health

Vienna, Va. - Taking a mouthwatering bite out of an apple might also take a bite out of colon cancer risk, according to new research just presented at a major international cancer research conference.

Eating apples may help reduce the risk of developing colon cancer by significantly reducing the growth of precancerous lesions in the colon, according to lead researcher Francis Raul, Ph.D., research director of the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Strasbourg. Dr. Raul presented his group's findings at the American Association for Cancer Research's third annual international research conference in Seattle last month. Dr. Raul and his colleagues have found that procyanidins, plant-generated compounds found in high concentrations in apples and apple foods, reduced the number of pre-cancerous lesions in rats by nearly 50 percent. Procyanidins extracted from apples were added to the animals' drinking water, in a relatively low concentration of 0.01 percent.

"Our work suggests that eating the whole apple might offer some anti-cancer benefits," said Dr. Raul. "That is certainly something we can comfortably say without more study."

Procyanidins are effective against colon cancer in part because they stop newly-forming cancer cells from multiplying and give them the chemical signal to "self-destruct" known as apoptosis, according to Dr. Raul. "Procyanidins do not have any impact on 'normal' colon cells, they only act specifically on cells that are multiplying very quickly," he said.

Procyanidins hail from a family of plant-generated compounds called proanthocyanidins. In August of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that apples are a top food source of proanthocyanidins, commonly known as "condensed tannins," which contribute to foods' astringent flavor.

The primary focus of Dr. Raul's work has been the impact of procyanidins on colon cancer prevention. With further testing, he hopes to find a way to use procyanidins to help cure existing cases of colon cancer.

"This is important research that adds more evidence to what people have known instinctively for a very long time - that in addition to their flavor and versatile food qualities, apples and apple foods may also be good for your health in many ways," said Dianne Hyson, Ph.D., M.S., R.D., head of nutrition research at the University of California-Davis' general clinical research center and an assistant professor at California State University, Sacramento who is considered a U.S. authority on apple health benefits research.

This laboratory research supports the finding of other international cancer experts that apples have a beneficial affect on cancers of the digestive tract. This summer, a scientific literature review published by the U.K.'s Institute for Food Research reported that eating more fiber - and phytonutrient-rich fruits and vegetables - including flavonoids found most abundantly in apples - may significantly reduce the risk of developing digestive or "gut" cancers, including colon cancer.

In 2000, researchers from Cornell University reported in the journal Nature that phytonutrients in apples inhibited the growth of colon cancer and liver cancer cells in vitro.

This and other USApple consumer and health news releases are available at http://www.usapple.org/media/newsreleases/index.shtml . A summary of recent apple health research is available at http://www.usapple.org/educators/research/index.shtml .