It seems a salad recipe for the raw forms of
these foods is in order. Thank you for this
useful reminder that some foods are best
eaten raw.

--- who, sadly, is the kind of shallow airhead who can't be arsed to tell us
what cooking *methods* were used, and how, if at all, *different* cooking
methods might lead to *different effects*...

W.

Broccoli sulforaphane works well with selenium in the form of selenite:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16377050 and recently it was found that
if the sulphur in isothiocyanate is chemically replaced by selenium to make
isoselenocyanates the result is a much more potent cancer fighter. I wonder
if there is a natural way of somehow providing a selenium compound to the
plant as a fertilizer that will cause the plant to preferentially synthesize
the selenocyanate in place of the thio while it is growing. I know it's
possible in humans. When you supplement with selenium your
(seleno-mercaptan/hydrogen selenide) farts have a distinctly novel flavor
compared to the usual garlic and cabbage based mercaptans/ sulfides. Who can
blame a cancer cell for committing suicide?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090301094250.htm

Broccoli And Cabbage-based Drug Could Inhibit Melanoma
ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) - Compounds extracted from green vegetables such
as broccoli and cabbage could be a potent drug against melanoma, according
to cancer researchers. Tests on mice suggest that these compounds, when
combined with selenium, target tumors more safely and effectively than
conventional therapy.

"There are currently no drugs to target the proteins that trigger melanoma,"
said Gavin Robertson, associate professor of pharmacology, pathology and
dermatology, Penn State College of Medicine. "We have developed drugs from
naturally occurring compounds that can inhibit the growth of tumors in mice
by 50 to 60 percent with a very low dose."

Robertson and his colleagues previously showed the therapeutic potential of
targeting the Akt3 protein in inhibiting the development of melanoma. The
search for a drug to block the protein led them to a class of compounds
called isothiocyanates.

These naturally occurring chemicals found in cruciferous vegetables are
known to have certain cancer-fighting properties. However, the potency of
these compounds is so low that a successful drug would require large
impractical amounts of these compounds.

Instead, the Penn State researchers rewired the compounds by replacing their
sulfur bonds with selenium. The result, they believe, is a more potent drug
that can be delivered intravenously in low doses.

"Selenium deficiency is common in cancer patients, including those diagnosed
with metastatic melanoma," explained Robertson, whose findings appear in the
March edition of Clinical Cancer Research. "Besides, selenium is known to
destabilize Akt proteins in prostate cancer cells."

To study the effectiveness of the new drug -- isoselenocyanate --
researchers injected mice with 10 million cancer cells. Six days later, when
the animals developed large tumors, they were divided into two groups and
treated separately with either the vegetable compounds or the compounds
supplemented with selenium.

"We found that the selenium-enhanced compounds significantly reduced the
production of Akt3 protein and shut down its signaling network," explained
Robertson, who is also associate director of translational research and
leader of the experimental therapeutics program at Penn State Hershey Cancer
Institute. The modified compounds also reduced the growth of tumors by 60
percent, compared to the vegetable-based compounds alone.

When the researchers exposed three different human melanoma cell lines to
the two compounds, the selenium-enhanced drug worked better on some cell
lines than others. The efficiency was from 30 to 70 percent depending on the
cell line.

The exact mechanism of how selenium inhibits cancer remains unclear. However
Robertson, who has a filed provisional patent on the discovery, is convinced
that the use of naturally occurring compounds that target cancer-causing
proteins could lead to more effective ways of treating melanoma.

"We have harnessed something found in nature to target melanoma," said
Robertson. "And since we only need tiny amounts to kill the cancer cells, it
means even less toxic side-effects for the patient."

Human trials of the new drug are still some years away, but the Penn State
researcher envisions a drug that could be delivered either intravenously to
treat melanoma, or added to sunscreen lotion to prevent the disease.

Other researchers on the paper include Arati Sharma and Arun K. Sharma, both
assistant professors; Subbarao V. Madhunapantula, postdoctoral scholar;
Dhimant Desai, associate professor; Sung Jin Huh, graduate student, and
Shantu Amin, professor, all in the department of pharmacology, and Paul
Mosca, assistant professor of surgery, Lehigh Valley and Health Network.

The American Cancer Society, The Foreman Foundation for Melanoma Research,
National Institutes of Health, Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, and Melanoma
Research Foundation funded this work.

-----------------------------------------------

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16377050

Food Chem Toxicol. 2006 May;44(5):695-703. Epub 2005 Dec 22.

Aqueous extracts of selenium-fertilized broccoli increase selenoprotein
activity and inhibit DNA single-strand breaks, but decrease the activity of
quinone reductase in Hepa 1c1c7 cells.

Keck AS, Finley JW.
Department of Food Sciences and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at
Champaign-Urbana, 905 S Goodwin #84A, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

Depending on growth conditions, broccoli may be enriched in the
isothiocyanate sulforaphane and/or the mineral selenium (Se); both compounds
may play an important role in the reduction of intracellular oxidative
stress and chronic disease prevention. Sulforaphane up-regulates
transcription of Phase II detoxification proteins (e.g. quinone reductase
[QR]), whereas Se is needed for the production of thioredoxin reductase (TR)
and glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx1), both of which exhibit antioxidant
activity. The objective of the present study was to determine whether the
fertilization of broccoli with Se increases the antioxidant ability of
broccoli. Hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA single-strand breaks (measured by
single cell electrophoresis, Comet assay) and activity of antioxidant
enzymes (GPx, TR and QR) were measured in mouse hepatoma cells (Hepa 1c1c7
cells) treated with purified sulforaphane, sodium selenite or extracts of
selenized broccoli. When supplied separately as chemically pure substances,
sodium selenite was more effective than sulforaphane for reduction of
single-strand breaks. Se-fertilized broccoli extracts were the most
effective for reduction of DNA single-strand breaks, and extracts that
contained 0.71 microM Se and 0.08 microM sulforaphane inhibited 94% of DNA
single-strand breaks. A significant positive association (r = 0.81, p =
0.009) between GPx1 activity and inhibition of DNA single-strand breaks as
well as a 24h lag time between addition of Se, sulforaphane or broccoli
extract and inhibition of single-strand breaks suggests that some of the
antioxidant protection is mediated through selenoproteins. Conversely,
fertilization of broccoli with Se decreased the ability of broccoli extract
to induce QR activity. These results demonstrate that Se and sulforaphane,
alone or as a component of broccoli, may help decrease oxidative stress.
They further suggest that Se is the most important for decreasing oxidative
stress, but maximizing the Se content of broccoli also may compromise its
ability to induce Phase II detoxification proteins.

PMID: 16377050 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This study suggest that there is an opimum cooking technique:
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news2746.html
Maximizing the Anti-Cancer Power of Broccoli
Published: May. 12, 2004

Source: Elizabeth Jeffery, (217) 333-3820, ejeffery@uiuc.edu

May 12, 2004

University of Illinois researcher Elizabeth Jeffery has learned how to
maximize the cancer-fighting power of broccoli. It involves heating broccoli
just enough to eliminate a sulfur-grabbing protein, but not enough to stop
the plant from releasing an important cancer-fighting compound called
sulforaphane.

The discovery of this sulfur-grabbing protein in the Jeffery lab makes it
possible to maximize the amount of the anticarcinogen sulforaphane in
broccoli.

Jeffery's research will be published in an upcoming issue of Phytochemistry.
She is a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at
the U of I.

"As scientists, we learned that sulforaphane is maximized when broccoli has
been heated 10 minutes at 140 degrees Fahrenheit," said Jeffery. "For the
consumer, who cannot readily hold the temperature as low as 140 degrees,
that means the best way to prepare broccoli is to steam it lightly about 3
or 4 minutes--until the broccoli is tough-tender."

Frozen-food manufacturers may use this technology to increase the health
benefits of the broccoli they sell, allowing the consumer to heat it without
having to worry about the conditions.

Jeffery said that sulforaphane is one of the most powerful anticarcinogens
found in food. "It works by increasing the enzymes in your liver that
destroy the cancer-inducing chemicals you ingest in food or encounter in the
environment."

But the chemistry for triggering the release of sulforaphane is tricky.
Sulforaphane is linked to a sugar molecule through a sulfur bond. When the
broccoli enzyme breaks off the sugar to release the sulforaphane, a
sulfur-grabbing protein can remove the newly exposed sulfur on the
sulforaphane and inactivate it.

"Although our gut bacteria may be able to release some of the sulforaphane,
we don't have the enzyme to release sulforaphane in our body tissues, so our
best bet is to use the enzyme in the broccoli," Jeffery said. "The enzyme in
the broccoli does a really good job of breaking that bond. You can break it
simply by chopping the broccoli."

Jeffery's team of researchers began by cooking broccoli for different
lengths of times at different temperatures to learn the point at which the
broccoli enzyme that releases sulforaphane is destroyed.

"And, much to our excitement, after we had heated it for just a little
while, we found we had killed off a protein that nobody knew was there. This
protein, named the epithiospecifier protein, had been grabbing sulfur and
greatly depleting the amount of sulforaphane in a serving of broccoli.

"The protein was very heat-sensitive, and with a little bit of heat, we
killed it off and got an almost perfect yield of sulforaphane, the
cancer-fighting component," she said.

"It was a serendipitous discovery, and it changed our focus. Instead of
worrying about overcooking the broccoli and losing the enzyme that releases
the sulforaphane, we focused on heating the broccoli just enough to destroy
the sulfur-grabbing protein, but not enough to harm the enzyme that releases
sulforaphane from the sugar," said Jeffery.

Other researchers at the University of Illinois who contributed to the study
were Nathan Matusheski and Qinyan Qiao.

The study was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Thanks for this fascinating article, R. I had missed this one -- good
information. I need to eat more foods raw. Every year here in Sedona
AZ we have a big  raw foods convention that attracts thousands of
people. I'm going to take the next one more seriously,

D.

The study seems to be

Bioavailability and Kinetics of Sulforaphane in Humans after Consumption
of Cooked versus Raw Broccoli
Martijn Vermeulen*, Ineke W. A. A. Klpping-Ketelaars†, Robin van den
Berg‡ and Wouter H. J. Vaes
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2008, 56 (22), pp 10505–10509
Publication Date (Web): October 24, 2008 (Article)
DOI: 10.1021/jf801989e
<http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf801989e>