According to a new study, a concentrated extract of freeze-dried Broccoli sprouts helped cut-down the development of bladder tumor by more than 50%. According to researchers, this finding supports the earlier studies, which indicated that broccoli consumption is associated with lower risk of bladder cancer.

A Professor of Oncology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Dr. Yuesheng Zhang, said that the study conducted in rats, gives sufficient evidence that eating vegetables is beneficial in prevention of bladder cancer.

It is believed that the protective effect of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables such as kale, cabbage and collard greens is partly due to presence of Isothyiocyanates (ITCs), a group of phytochemicals with anti-cancerous properties. The bladder is, in particularly, more responsive to this group of natural chemicals.

Zhang and his colleagues tested the freeze-dried Broccoli sprout extract in rats, with a chemical that induces bladder cancer. While one group of rats did not receive the extract, the other two groups were given a high or low dose of the extract in the food, prior to two weeks before injecting the cancer-causing chemical. An average of about two tumors developed in 96 percent of rats that were not given the extract. However in 74 percent of rats that received a low dose of extract developer an average of 1.39 tumors, while those that received high dose of extract developed only 0.46 turmors in 38 percent of the rats.

The results which were published in the Cancer Research Journal, clearly indicates that Broccoli sprouts have30 times more ITCs than mature broccoli.

However, according to Zhang, as far as humans are concerned, the dosages of ITCs need to be much lower than the dosages given to rats.