Guest guest Posted April 12, 2001 Report Share Posted April 12, 2001 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 Related Stories: Worthington Foods Recalls Corn Dogs USDA Expands Euro Beef Ban Related Mini-Checkups: 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 \ ( ( ) \_) ) / (_/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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