Health aNd Fitness Guide

A gel derived from black raspberries, a fruit beverage and the old-fashioned green tea all hold potential promise in treatment or prevention of different types of cancer, preliminary research suggests. Two other studies — one with people and one with rats — suggest that a black raspberry gel can reduce oral cancer lesions and green tea can prevent colorectal cancer.

However, the studies are small and need confirmation. Researchers in the US are using a gel made of extracts from black raspberries to treat oral lesions, which often begin as growths inside the mouth and threated to turn into tumors. Patients whose tumors had progressed the least seemed to do the best after undergoing the gel treatment. None of the patients reported side effects.

In another study, Australian researchers gave the drink to mice with tumors that were considered equivalent to prostate cancer in humans. The tumors were 25% smaller in eight mice that drank the punch for two weeks, compared to eight mice that did not drink the punch. The next step is to figure out if the punch — made of fruit concentrates and a variety of extracts, as well as tarragon, turmeric and ginger — would have a beneficial effect in humans.

In the third study, researchers fed chemicals known as polyphenols from green tea to rats that had colorectal cancer. The polyphenols appeared to reduce the size of tumors by 45%. It’s not clear if the polyphenols would have a similar benefit in humans.