Oregano oil may counter carcinogens

[Guest guest]

UA research: Oregano oil may counter carcinogens

Becky Pallack

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

12-21-10

Dec. 21--When you salt and pepper your meat for flavor, you might want to shake

on a little oregano for health reasons, a University of Arizona researcher says.

Food microbiologist Sadhana Ravishankar has found the oil from the herb can

fight dangerous bacteria and compounds that can cause cancer.

The Idea

Ravishankar got interested in food safety after the 1993 E. coli outbreak that

sickened hundreds and killed four children who ate at Jack in the Box

restaurants.

Now her lab at the UA focuses on ways to control foodborne bacteria.

She has been studying carvacrol, a beige-colored oil that smells strongly of

oregano.

Other researchers found it to be effective against bacteria in lab media, and

she wanted to take that research further and apply it to food safety.

" The idea that something in a plant can inactivate all this bacteria is very

fascinating to me, " Ravishankar said.

The Breakthrough

While testing carvacrol's anti-microbial properties in ground beef, Ravishankar

discovered it potentially could also prevent cancer.

As raw meat heats up on the grill, amino acids and glucose form molecules that

mix with creatinine in the muscle to form compounds that have the potential to

cause cancer.

The higher the temperature, the higher the risk.

But Ravishankar was surprised to see that applying carvacrol to meat before

grilling reduced the formation of the cancer-causing compounds by up to 78

percent.

" We did not have any idea about the anti-oxidative activity at all, " she said.

" We were pretty excited. "

Her research was funded by the American Cancer Society through the Arizona

Cancer Center, and her study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and

Food Chemistry.

The Future

More testing is needed to figure out exactly how carvacrol reacts with the

compounds in meat.

Ravishankar wants to do tests with fresh and dried oregano leaves in addition to

the oil, and she wants to determine what concentration of the oil is needed to

get good health results.

She also wants to test other plant extracts that have anti-oxidative and

anti-microbial properties.

But it seems the future of food safety might include more tasty spices as a way

to allow safer cooking with lower heat.

Did You Know

Last year the Arizona Cancer Center received 308 grants for cancer research,

worth $74 million.

Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@... or 807-8012.

-----

To see more of The Arizona Daily Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to

http://www.azstarnet.com.

Copyright © 2010, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune

Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.

 

UA research: Oregano oil may counter carcinogens

Becky Pallack

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

12-21-10

Dec. 21--When you salt and pepper your meat for flavor, you might want to shake

on a little oregano for health reasons, a University of Arizona researcher says.

Food microbiologist Sadhana Ravishankar has found the oil from the herb can

fight dangerous bacteria and compounds that can cause cancer.

The Idea

Ravishankar got interested in food safety after the 1993 E. coli outbreak that

sickened hundreds and killed four children who ate at Jack in the Box

restaurants.

Now her lab at the UA focuses on ways to control foodborne bacteria.

She has been studying carvacrol, a beige-colored oil that smells strongly of

oregano.

Other researchers found it to be effective against bacteria in lab media, and

she wanted to take that research further and apply it to food safety.

" The idea that something in a plant can inactivate all this bacteria is very

fascinating to me, " Ravishankar said.

The Breakthrough

While testing carvacrol's anti-microbial properties in ground beef, Ravishankar

discovered it potentially could also prevent cancer.

As raw meat heats up on the grill, amino acids and glucose form molecules that

mix with creatinine in the muscle to form compounds that have the potential to

cause cancer.

The higher the temperature, the higher the risk.

But Ravishankar was surprised to see that applying carvacrol to meat before

grilling reduced the formation of the cancer-causing compounds by up to 78

percent.

" We did not have any idea about the anti-oxidative activity at all, " she said.

" We were pretty excited. "

Her research was funded by the American Cancer Society through the Arizona

Cancer Center, and her study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and

Food Chemistry.

The Future

More testing is needed to figure out exactly how carvacrol reacts with the

compounds in meat.

Ravishankar wants to do tests with fresh and dried oregano leaves in addition to

the oil, and she wants to determine what concentration of the oil is needed to

get good health results.

She also wants to test other plant extracts that have anti-oxidative and

anti-microbial properties.

But it seems the future of food safety might include more tasty spices as a way

to allow safer cooking with lower heat.

Did You Know

Last year the Arizona Cancer Center received 308 grants for cancer research,

worth $74 million.

Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@... or 807-8012.

-----

To see more of The Arizona Daily Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to

http://www.azstarnet.com.

Copyright © 2010, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune

Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.

 

UA research: Oregano oil may counter carcinogens

Becky Pallack

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

12-21-10

 

Dec. 21--When you salt and pepper your meat for flavor, you might want to shake

on a little oregano for health reasons, a University of Arizona researcher says.

 

Food microbiologist Sadhana Ravishankar has found the oil from the herb can

fight dangerous bacteria and compounds that can cause cancer.

 

The Idea

Ravishankar got interested in food safety after the 1993 E. coli outbreak that

sickened hundreds and killed four children who ate at Jack in the Box

restaurants.

Now her lab at the UA focuses on ways to control foodborne bacteria.

 

She has been studying carvacrol, a beige-colored oil that smells strongly of

oregano.

 

Other researchers found it to be effective against bacteria in lab media, and

she wanted to take that research further and apply it to food safety.

" The idea that something in a plant can inactivate all this bacteria is very

fascinating to me, " Ravishankar said.

 

The Breakthrough

While testing carvacrol's anti-microbial properties in ground beef, Ravishankar

discovered it potentially could also prevent cancer.

 

As raw meat heats up on the grill, amino acids and glucose form molecules that

mix with creatinine in the muscle to form compounds that have the potential to

cause cancer.

The higher the temperature, the higher the risk.

 

But Ravishankar was surprised to see that applying carvacrol to meat before

grilling reduced the formation of the cancer-causing compounds by up to 78

percent.

" We did not have any idea about the anti-oxidative activity at all, " she said.

" We were pretty excited. "

 

Her research was funded by the American Cancer Society through the Arizona

Cancer Center, and her study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and

Food Chemistry.

 

The Future

More testing is needed to figure out exactly how carvacrol reacts with the

compounds in meat. Ravishankar wants to do tests with fresh and dried oregano

leaves in addition to the oil, and she wants to determine what concentration of

the oil is needed to get good health results. She also wants to test other plant

extracts that have anti-oxidative and anti-microbial properties.

 

But it seems the future of food safety might include more tasty spices as a way

to allow safer cooking with lower heat.

 

Did You Know

Last year the Arizona Cancer Center received 308 grants for cancer research,

worth $74 million.

Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@... or 807-8012.

-----

To see more of The Arizona Daily Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to

http://www.azstarnet.com.

Copyright © 2010, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune

Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com.