Broccoli pills?Broccoli pills? In the search for a treatment for schistosomiasis schistosomiasis (shĭs`təsōmī`əsĭs), bilharziasis, or snail fever, parasitic disease caused by blood flukes, trematode worms of the genus Schistosoma. , a parasitic disease A parasitic disease is an infectious disease caused or transmitted by a parasite. Many parasites do not cause disease per se. Parasitic diseases can affect practically all living organisms, from plants to man. The study of parasitic diseases is called by parasitology. that affects hundreds of millions of people, Ernest Bueding has come up with an explanation for why certain vegetables seem to have a protective effect against cancer. He and co-workers at Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. in Baltimore have found that a chemical in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower cauliflower (kô`lĭflou'ər, käl`ĭ–), variety of cabbage, with an edible head of condensed flowers and flower stems. Broccoli is the horticultural variety (botrytis); both were cultivated in Roman times. and cabbage raises the level of certain cancer-fighting agents in the blood. The vegetables contain chemicals called dithiolthiones, which Bueding and colleagues were testing against the worm that causes schistosomiasis. They found that dithiolthiones lower the worm's level of glutathione glutathione: see coenzyme. , a compound involved in normal metabolism and in detoxifying chemicals. Concerned about the implications for use of dithiolthiones in mammals, the researchers tested the drugs in mice and found that they increased glutathione. But it's too early for broccoli haters to start downing dithiolthiones in pill form, Bueding says. "We have to prove the drugs are harmless before suggesting people take it every day.' |
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