|
Overview of Chlorophyll
More on Chlorophyll |
Fact -
Chlorophyll (ins)
can prevent Cancer Science has
known for years the benefits of chlorophyll; without chlorophyll, the 'green
blood' of plant / photosynthesis, life as we know it could not
exist. Until recently, most research involving
plants has been geared towards 'better
plants' for 'better
meat'". For years it was thought that
the protein we needed could only come from meat.
This website brings together the research that
proves different, such is the case in evolution.
In the 1960s poultry
farmers in the UK and trout farmers in the pacific northwest of the
United States began losing their stock to an unknown illness. The culprit
was identified as the fungus Aspergillus Flavus and a toxic metabolite it
produces called Aflatoxin B1, one of the most potent human carcinogens.
The trout were subsequently discovered to be extremely sensitive to
Aflatoxin B1 and an excellent model for environmental carcinogenesis
research.
In the mid-80s, Dr. Roderick Dashwood,
familiar with the anti-mutagenic abilities of chlorophylls in bacterial
assays, began to study the possible benefits of chlorophyll
chlorophyllins (a
chlorophyll derivative commonly extracted from the alfalfa plant) given
to trout exposed to Aflatoxin B1. The results of Dr. Dashwood and his
colleagues were the first scientific confirmation of the chemo-protective
effect of chlorophylls. Since then, research has continued using
a multitude of cancer causing substances. The results are the same ...
Chlorophyllin
PREVENTS CANCER!
Unbelievably 'chlorophyll chlorophyllin' is virtually unheard of. Nutrition councils
recommend 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables daily with particular
emphasis on 'greens'. Unfortunately, to obtain the benefits found in one
dose of chlorophyll chlorophyllin you would have to consume massive amounts of fresh
or frozen produce. In fact, it takes approximately 400 lbs of raw
material (alfalfa) to make 1 lb of chlorophyll chlorophyllin.
Now that the
facts are in, we hope that the medical profession will soon be singing
the praises of this natural, non-toxic wonder. The information on this
website will prove to be invaluable to you and your loved ones. It is our
hope, and our quest, that every home in every country in every nation has
access to this powerful protector, simple inexpensive bottles of Liquid
Chlorophyll (Sodium Copper chlorophyll chlorophyllin). If our voice is heard, most
every known disease will/can be prevented or cured.
Chlorophylls:
Can These Green Food Pigments
Prevent Some Cancers?
George S.
Bailey, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Food Toxicology
OSU/LPI Affiliate Investigator
Chlorophyll, the natural
plant pigment that lends its color to grass, leaves, and many of the
vegetables we eat, may play an important role in prevention of certain
cancers. Researchers in the early 1980s discovered that chlorophylls and
related chemicals can inhibit the ability of certain DNA-damaging
chemicals to cause mutations in bacteria. How might this kind of "anti-mutagenic"
activity be important in cancer prevention? Molecular geneticists now
know that most if not all human cancers carry mutations in one or more
genes that control the rates at which individual cells divide,
differentiate, or die. According to current thinking, various
combinations of mutations that upset this delicate balance to favor
uncontrolled cell growth can then enable this irreversibly damaged cell
to form a primary cancer in the lung, liver, blood, bone, skin, or
another body organ. Therefore, it seems at least theoretically possible
that the anti-mutagenic power of the chlorophylls might allow them to
inhibit or reduce the formation of cancers in humans. Recent progress in
our laboratory and elsewhere has brought this promise closer to
realization.
|
People in certain
parts of Africa, China, and other developing countries with similarly
warm, damp climates have the highest rates of liver cancer in the
world. The two major risk factors are chronic hepatitis B viral
infection, and exposure to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in the food supply.
People exposed to both factors are at extremely high risk for liver
cancer. Peanuts, corn, rice, and other grains and nuts stored under
warm damp conditions can be infected with the mold Aspergillus
flavus, which produces AFB1 as a secondary metabolite. AFB1 is
one of the most potent cancer-causing chemicals, or carcinogens, ever
discovered. Interestingly, AFB1 came to be recognized as a potential
human liver carcinogen only after it was identified as the cause of
outbreaks of liver cancer in rainbow trout hatcheries in the Pacific
Northwest in the 1960s.
Much of that
pioneering work was carried out at Oregon State University by
Professor Russel Sinnhuber who immediately recognized the promise of
the rainbow trout as a model of exquisite sensitivity for the study
of liver cancer. Postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in my
laboratory have been using this model for the past 12 years in a
search for means to reduce AFB1-based liver cancer risk.
Dr. Roderick Dashwood, a postdoctoral associate who came to my lab in
1986, became interested in chlorophylls. Although their anti-mutagenic
activity in bacterial assays was then well known, no one knew if
chlorophylls could have a protective effect in animals. Rod
discovered that rainbow trout fed AFB1 together with chlorophyll
chlorophyllin, a
simple water-soluble chlorophyll derivative, had greatly reduced
damage to their liver DNA compared to trout receiving AFB1 alone.
Would this reduce liver cancer development? That question was
answered by a Ph.D. student, Vibeke Breinholt, who showed that even
very modest dietary levels of chlorophyll chlorophyllin, roughly equivalent to
the chlorophyll in one small helping of spinach, strongly reduced
liver cancer in trout co-fed AFB1. Vibeke's results also showed
clearly that this reduction could be directly attributed to reduced
AFB1-DNA damage in the liver. These very exciting findings were the
first ever to reveal a true cancer-protective effect by chlorophylls.
Several important
questions now remained before these findings might be taken to human
trials: Was the effect unique to trout or would chlorophyll
chlorophyllin inhibit
cancer in other animals? How did the cancer inhibition come about and
would this mechanism likely apply to AFB1-exposed humans? Could
chlorophyll chlorophyllin inhibit cancers other than liver or caused by
carcinogens other than AFB1 -- that is, might it have a potentially
broader applicability? Would native chlorophylls in the plants we eat
be as effective as the chlorophyll chlorophyllin derivative? The answers to most
of these questions are now known. Rod Dashwood, presently at
University of Hawaii, found that chlorophyll chlorophyllin in the drinking water
could strongly reduce colon cancer development in rats exposed to heterocyclic amines, which are potent carcinogens isolated from meats
broiled at high temperature. Others found similar protection against
skin tumors in mice painted with polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and we
have shown protection against stomach and liver cancer in trout
treated with a carcinogenic hydrocarbon found in tobacco smoke.
Subsequent work by Vibeke, Michael Schimerlik, and Tetsu Hayashi
showed that chlorophyll chlorophyllin associated tightly with AFB1, even in the
acidic environment of the stomach and at the temperature of the human
body, which most likely explained the ability of chlorophyll
chlorophyllin to
greatly reduce bioavailability or uptake of AFB1 from the diet. John
Groopman and Tom Kensler two colleagues at Johns Hopkins University,
found that dietary chlorophyll chlorophyllin was as effective at preventing
AFB1-DNA damage in the liver of rats as it was in trout. Such a
simple and safe protective mechanism was almost sure to apply to
humans!
Based on these findings and the known safety of chlorophyll
chlorophyllin, the
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recently funded a
research grant for Drs. Kensler, Groopman, and me to conduct a
chlorophyll chlorophyllin intervention trial in a region of China where people
are unavoidably exposed to high levels of AFB1 in their diet. In
August I ventured to the little town of Daxin where Tom and I, with
the help of local physicians from the Qidong Liver Cancer Institute,
initiated the trial.
After screening 500 volunteers, over 200 people were identified with
high levels of chronic AFB1 exposure. Of these, 90 people will
receive a green sugar pill and 90 will receive a green chlorophyll
chlorophyllin
tablet with each meal for four months. (The samples are all coded and
nobody knows who gets what until the code is revealed at the very
end). Blood and urine samples are being collected every second week.
By analysis of these samples we hope to tell if chlorophyll
chlorophyllin alters
AFB1 uptake and liver DNA damage in people as it does in trout and
rats. The experiment can detect a reduction of 20% or greater, and,
of course, this is what we hope to see. On a personal note, those of
us trained in the basic sciences rarely have an opportunity to see
our work applied directly to the reduction of human disease and
misery. It would be rewarding indeed to see the trout model applied
full circle from the discovery of a major form of human cancer risk,
to the discovery of a simple means for its prevention. By this time
next year I hope to be able to tell you how this turns out.
The Outcome Follows
A study conducted by researchers at the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that taking
chlorophyll chlorophyllin greatly reduces the levels of aflatoxin-DNA damage
byproducts in the body, which are indicators of exposure to
carcinogenic aflatoxins and increased risk of liver cancer.
chlorophyll chlorophyllin is a derivative of chlorophyll and is used as an
over-the-counter diet supplement and as a food colorant. The results
appear in the November 27, 2001 edition of Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences.
“Our study shows that taking
chlorophyll chlorophyllin three times a day reduced the amounts of aflatoxin-DNA
damage by 55 percent, compared with taking a placebo,” says Thomas Kensler, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Taking chlorophyll
chlorophyllin or
eating green vegetables, like spinach, that are rich in chlorophyll
may be a practical way of reducing the risk of liver cancer and other
cancers caused by environmental triggers,” explains Dr. Kensler.
Dr. Kensler and his colleagues
conducted a double-blind study among residents of Qidong, China. The
people of the region have an extraordinarily high rate of liver
cancer, which is due in part from routinely eating foods contaminated
with carcinogenic aflatoxins. The aflatoxin is produced by molds
found in foods like corn, peanuts, soy sauce, and fermented soybeans.
For the study, researchers recruited
180 healthy adults. Half of the group was given 100 mg tablets of
chlorophyll chlorophyllin to take three times a day with meals for four months.
The other half was given a placebo. Urine and blood samples were
taken over four months to determine the effects of chlorophyll
chlorophyllin on
excretion of aflatoxin-DNA damage products.
According to the study’s results, the
people who took chlorophyll chlorophyllin showed a 55 percent reduction in
aflatoxin-DNA damage, compared to the placebo group.
“Studies conducted by our co-author,
George Bailey of Oregon State University, have suggested that
chlorophyll chlorophyllin acts as an ‘interceptor molecule’ to block the
absorption of aflatoxins and carcinogens in the diet,” explains John
Groopman, PhD, professor and chairman of the Department of
Environmental Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health. “Our study shows that chlorophyll chlorophyllin can effectively
reduce aflatoxin levels, which should reduce the risk of liver
cancer. Since chlorophyll chlorophyllin is found in many foods or can be easily
added to the diet, it could be a safe and effective prevention
method. The study adds to the evidence that green vegetables contain
effective anticarcinogens,” adds Dr. Groopman.
Follow up studies are planned to
determine whether this early protective action of chlorophyll
chlorophyllin
extends to either delay the onset or reduce the incidence of liver
cancer.
Patricia Egner, Jin-Bing Wang, Yuan-Rong
Zhu, Bao-Chu Zhang, Geng-Sun Qian, Shuang-Yuan Kuang, Stephen J.
Gange, Lisa P. Jacobson, Kathy J. Helzlsouer, George S. Bailey, John
D. Groopman, and Thomas W. Kensler assisted in the research and
writing of the article “chlorophyll chlorophyllin intervention reduces aflatoxin-DNA
adducts in individuals at high risk for liver cancer.”
The study was funded by grants from the
U.S. Public Health Service, National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences.
Note: This story has
been adapted from a news release issued for journalists and other
members of the public. If you wish to quote any part of this story,
please credit Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Of Public
Health as the original source. |
|
