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A LITTLE ARTICLE ABOUT OUR FRIEND CAYENNE

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Found this on Healthscout.com and thought that I would pass it along:

 

Killer Cayenne

Hot pepper compound may fight fungi

By Julia McNamee Neenan

HealthScout Reporter

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  Carbohydrate  

  Protein  TUESDAY, April 3 (HealthScout) -- Cayenne pepper -- the kind

you find in your spice jars -- seems to do more than add a little zip to your

food.

The ground-up spice contains a compound that, at least in lab experiments,

proves deadly to many fungi and bacteria, say government researchers.

At the local supermarket, a pound of the hot stuff costs $4.69 and produces

about 500 milligrams of CAY-1, the newly dubbed compound being tested by

microbiologist Anthony J. DeLucca and colleagues at the Agricultural Research

Service facility located, as it turns out, in the heart of Cajun country: New

Orleans. " You can buy one-pound bottles of cayenne pepper here, " DeLucca

quips.

So far, he says, their compound has knocked out Candida albicans, a fungal

organism that leads to thrush and other yeast infections, and Pneumocystis

carinii, which causes pneumonia. Such infections pose real dangers for people

with immune system problems, including cancer patients undergoing

chemotherapy and people with AIDS.

And the cayenne pepper compound does not appear to cause problems for human

cells, DeLucca says.

The pepper project started when DeLucca was seeking protection for cotton

crops frequently contaminated by Aspergillus fungus. He tested a variety of

organisms, including the Cecropia moth and tree frogs, but eventually turned

to cayenne pepper -- in part, DeLucca says, because of its spicy qualities.

People in warmer climates use spices to enliven food, but also to protect

against bacteria, he says.

But there were other reasons, as well.

" No one had really looked at cayenne pepper before, and yet it seemed a

logical plant, " DeLucca says. " It grows in the tropics and would need to

protect itself against all the fungi in nature. " Its fruit, in particular, he

says, would need protection beyond its tough skin, what's called a mechanical

barrier. " I thought there'd be something else, " he says.

Claude Selitrennikoff, president of MycoLogic, a small, Denver-based company

now trying to transform DeLucca's discovery into medicine, says he's not

surprised by that logic.

" Plants are very good at defending themselves against fungus, " Selitrennikoff

says. " They've developed a very sophisticated chemical warfare against these

non-friendly invaders. "

So DeLucca took some of the spicy powder and created a simple, crude extract.

He threw it in a test tube with Aspergillus, and it killed the fungus

quickly, he says.

Continuing to extract and purify it further, DeLucca says he began to think

about how the compound also might work against fungi that plague people.

Lungs, for instance, particularly are affected by yeast infections, he says,

and Aspergillus, besides causing problems for cotton, also can lead to

serious lung infections.

Working with MycoLogic, a scientist from the National Institutes of Health

and a colleague from another university, DeLucca found that CAY-1 works well

against C. albicans, Aspergillus, yeast infections, Pneumocystis and other

fungi and yeasts, he says.

A 2.6 microgram per milliliter dose cut C. albicans growth by 93 percent, he

says, and was effective against some strains that current medications can't

seem to kill.

Early tests of the CAY-1 compound on human lung and cervical cells also look

promising, DeLucca says, because the compound does not appear to have a toxic

effect, at least at the levels currently being used.

MycoLogic has received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of

Health to further investigate the compound, says Selitrennikoff, who is also

a professor of cellular and structural biology at the University of Colorado

Medical School. He says he plans to determine how the compound works, test it

further against human cells and then conduct preliminary tests on laboratory

mice.

DeLucca says he'd like to see CAY-1 tested on athlete's foot, too -- and he

predicts it just might prove effective against the most common household

fungus, if the right company explores the question.

" It might kill mold on grout, " he says.

 

What To Do

To learn more about therapeutic uses of cayenne pepper, check out WebMD.

For more on candidiasis, the infection caused by the yeast-like fungus that

DeLucca's compound attacks, visit KidsHealth, sponsored by the Nemours

Foundation.

Or, you might want to read previous HealthScout articles on peppers.

 

Paulissa,

 

" It's when we're given choice that we sit with the 'gods' and design

ourselves. " ~Dorothy Gilman

oooO

( ) Oooo

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