ISLAMABAD: Component that gives chillies their kick can cause diseased or cancerous cells to self destruct, suggests a recent research.
Capsaicin, the active component that gives chillies their heat, can switch on specialised channels surrounding cancer cells causing them to die, reported BBC health.
And it is not just breast cancer that Capsaicin could potentially be effective against, colon, bone and pancreatic cancers could also be killed off by the compound.
Scientists from Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, treated human samples of breast cancer cells with the hot ingredient to find out more about its ability to destroy them.
Dr Lea Weber said “Capsaicin is capable of inducing apoptosis (cell death) and inhibiting cancer cell growth in many different types of cancer, for example, osteosarcoma, colon, and pancreatic cancer cells, while normal cells remained unharmed.”
When capsaicin reaches a cancer cell, the spicy ingredient attaches itself to the edge of the cell known as the cell membrane and switches on a cell receptor called TRPV1.
The receptor TRPV1 is a channel that controls what substances such as calcium and sodium go in and out of the cancer cell.
When TRPV1 is switched on by capsaicin, the cancer cell is sent into overdrive and starts to self-destruct.
