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mineral binding ability
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MEDICAL ABSTRACTS

    * Antioxidant functions of phytic acid.
    * Dietary suppression of colonic cancer. Fiber or phytate?
    * Phytic acid in health and disease.
    * Phytic acid and minerals: effect on early markers of risk for
      mammary and colon carcinogenesis.

  PUBLISHED ARTICLES

    * Natural Sugar-Phosphate Compound Shows Promise as Cancer
Treatment
    * The Cancer Stopper
    _________________________________________________________________

  MEDICAL ABSTRACTS

  Antioxidant functions of phytic acid.
  Graf E, Eaton JW
  Pillsbury Company, Technology Center, Minneapolis, MN 55414.
  Free Radic Biol Med 1990;8(1):61-9

  Phytic acid is a natural plant antioxidant constituting 1-5% of most
  cereals, nuts, legumes, oil seeds, pollen and spores. By virtue of
  forming a unique iron chelate it suppresses iron-catalyzed oxidative
  reactions and may serve a potent antioxidant function in the
  preservation of seeds. By the same mechanism dietary phytic acid may
  lower the incidence of colonic cancer and protect against other
  inflammatory bowel diseases. Its addition to foods inhibits lipid
  peroxidation and concomitant oxidative spoilage, such as
  discoloration, putrefaction, and syneresis. A multitude of other
  industrial applications are based on the antioxidant function of
  phytic acid.
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  Dietary suppression of colonic cancer. Fiber or phytate?
  Graf E, Eaton JW
  Cancer 1985 Aug 15;56(4):717-8

  The incidence of colonic cancer differs widely between various human
  populations. It has been suggested that dietary fiber content is of
  utmost importance and is inversely related to the occurrence of
  colonic cancer. However, high-fiber diets are not always correlated
  with low frequency of colonic cancer, suggesting the involvement of
  additional dietary constituents. Inositol hexaphosphate (phytic
acid)
  is an abundant plant seed component present in many, but not all,
  fiber-rich diets. The authors have found that phytic acid is a
potent
  inhibitor of iron-mediated generation of the hazardous oxidant,
  hydroxyl radical. Herein, the authors propose that inhibition of
  intracolonic hydroxyl radical generation, via the chelation of
  reactive iron by phytic acid, may help explain the suppression of
  colonic carcinogenesis and other inflammatory bowel diseases by
diets
  rich in phytic acid.
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  Phytic acid in health and disease.
  Zhou JR, Erdman JW Jr.
  Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana
  61801, USA.
  Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 1995 Nov;35(6):495-508

  Phytic acid (PA), a major phosphorus storage compound of most seeds
  and cereal grains, contributes about 1 to 7% of their dry weight. It
  may account for more than 70% of the total kernel phosphorus. PA has
  the strong ability to chelate multivalent metal ions, especially
zinc,
  calcium, and iron. The binding can result in very insoluble salts
that
  are poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, which results
in
  poor bioavailability (BV) of minerals. Alternatively, the ability of
  PA to chelate minerals has been reported to have some protective
  effects, such as decreasing iron-mediated colon cancer risk and
  lowering serum cholesterol and triglycerides in experimental
animals.
  Data from human studies are still lacking. PA is also considered to
be
  a natural antioxidant and is suggested to have potential functions
of
  reducing lipid peroxidation and as a preservative in foods. Finally,
  certain inositol phosphates, which may be derived from PA, have been
  noted to have a function in second messenger transduction systems.
The
  potential nutritional significance of PA is discussed in this
review.
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  Phytic acid and minerals: effect on early markers of risk for
mammary
  and colon carcinogenesis.
  Thompson LU, Zhang L
  Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University
of
  Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  Carcinogenesis 1991 Nov;12(11):2041-5

  This study determined the effect of inositol hexaphosphate or phytic
  acid (PA; 1.2%), Ca (1.5%) and Fe (535 p.p.m.) alone, and PA in
  combination with Ca or Fe in a high-fat diet (25%) on the labeling
  (LI) and mitotic (MI) cell proliferation indices, nuclear aberration
  (NA) and intraductal proliferation (IDP) in the mammary gland, as
well
  as the LI in colonic epithelial cells. Diet supplementation with PA
  alone caused reductions (P less than 0.05) in the colon LI by 18%,
and
  in the LI and NA in the total mammary gland structures of mice by 29
  and 30% respectively. Supplementation with Fe or particularly Ca
  caused increases in the colon LI and in the mammary LI, MI, NA and
IDP
  but these were reduced by 25-53% (P less than 0.05) in the presence
of
  PA. These results support the hypothesis that PA may reduce the risk
  for both colon and mammary cancer and its effect is related to its
  mineral binding ability. Furthermore, significant relationships (P
  less than 0.01) were observed between the LI and MI or NA in the
total
  structures of the mammary gland. The number of IDPs also related (P
  less than 0.05) to LI or NA in the terminal end bud structure of the
  mammary gland, suggesting that highly proliferating mammary cells,
  particularly in the terminal end bud structure, are of greater risk
  for nuclear damage and development to IDP. A significant
relationship
  (P less than 0.01) was observed between the cell proliferation in
the
  mammary gland and that in the colon, indicating that both tissues
can
  be influenced similarly by dietary constituents.
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