Turmeric compound may play pivotal role in treating colon cancer

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Researchers have identified a compound in turmeric that could play a pivotal role in preventing and treating colon cancer to a certain extent.

Colon cancer is usually caused by lifestyle factors, such as sedentry lifestyle and diet. The researchers found that combination of two plant compounds that have medicinal properties - curcumin and silymarin - holds promise in treating colon cancer.

Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice turmeric and silymarin is a component of milk thistle, which has been used to treat liver disease.

"Phytochemicals may offer alternate therapeutic approaches to cancer treatments and avoid toxicity problems and side effects that chemotherapy can cause," said corresponding author Uthayashanker Ezekiel, Associate Professor at Saint Louis University in Missouri, US.

The findings were published in the Journal of Cancer.

(With IANS inputs)