Supplements and Herbs
Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum)
Modern research shows health benefits, including against cancer
by copyright © 2024 Healing Cancer Naturally
Although isolated sugar tends to get a bad rap in health-conscious circles (and quite deservedly so), sugar cane surprisingly possesses a number of beneficial properties.
Sugar cane, a plant of the tropics and subtropics which is mainly cultivated in Brazil, India and China, is the most important "raw material supplier" for the production of table sugar: almost three quarters of the sugar consumed worldwide is produced from sugar cane.
Sugar cane is undemanding and at the same time amazingly resilient. Its stalks, which are cut off just above the ground during harvesting, can be harvested again 12 months later, up to eight times. And despite all these extreme demands, a sugar cane plant can still live for up to 20 years!
The "virtues" of sugar cane go far beyond its use as a source of sugar. In India, for example, sugar cane juice is widely used to treat jaundice and diseases of the urinary tract. Modern research also recognises the health benefits and enormous therapeutic potential of certain components of the plant—such as the polyphenols it contains (including flavonoids and anthocyanins) and the associated antioxidant effects that protect DNA from damage.[1],2]
SUGAR CANE IMPROVES COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE
Numerous epidemiological studies have already shown the effect of antioxidant polyphenols on cognitive performance. The tips of sugar cane stalks contain very little sugar, but have a particularly high polyphenol content.
Researchers from Japan and England investigated the effect of an extract from sugar cane stalk tips on various functions of the central nervous system, including in SAMP8 mice ("Senescence-Accelerated Mouse Prone 8", a naturally occurring species that ages early and spontaneously develops histological-pathological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease).
Sensational result: the orally administered sugar cane extract restored the memory and spatial learning ability of the mice. This improvement in cognitive performance could be attributed to the formation of new nerve cells, among other things.
In human nerve cells, the sugar cane extract stimulated metabolic functioning, including glucose metabolism. It also triggered increased stem cell formation and an extension of the cell processes of the astrocytes. Sugar cane extract could therefore be suitable as a dietary supplement to prevent cognitive decline.[3]
SUGAR CANE PROTECTS THE LIVER
As already mentioned, Saccharum officinarum contains components with pronounced antioxidant properties (especially flavonoids and anthocyanins). The antioxidant effect of anthocyanins, which act as "radical scavengers" in the body, binding free radicals and thus protecting the liver against oxidative damage, can even exceed that of vitamins C and E many times over—at least in a test tube.
A study has now investigated the effect of sugar cane juice on experimentally induced oxidative liver damage in laboratory animals.
The result: the animals treated only with the liver-damaging substance showed increased levels pf ASAT, ALAT, ALP and bilirubin in liver function tests, while those additionally given sugar cane juice showed considerably lower levels.
Histopathological examination of the liver tissue of the damaged animals revealed a compromised tissue architecture, while the liver tissue of the sugar cane juice group had clearly recovered and restored under the treatment. Sugar cane could therefore be an effective agent against oxidative liver damage.[4]
Liver fibrosis is a pathological proliferation of connective tissue that leads to hardening of the liver and is the precursor of liver cirrhosis, which makes its prevention and treatment a priority. To this end, a study isolated polyphenols from sugar cane (the most important in terms of quantity: epicatechin) and investigated the protective effect of the extract obtained on liver fibrosis caused by tetrachloromethane (a strong liver toxin) in rats.
Result: The extract improved liver biomarkers such as aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT, AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALAT, ALT) and simultaneously reduced the expression of ACTA2 (a structural protein that plays a role in the development of liver fibrosis).[5]
SUGAR CANE AGAINST DIABETES (really!)
It is assumed that plant extracts with a high antioxidant capacity (i.e. a high antioxidant content) have a positive (stabilising) effect on carbohydrate metabolism and therefore have a protective effect against type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Although it may not seem very logical at first, this also applies to a sugar cane extract with a high concentration of polyphenols and antioxidants, as shown by an Australian-American research team. When these researchers took a closer look at the therapeutic potential of such an extract on the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism—i.e. the associated cellular processes and biochemical reaction pathways—they came to surprising conclusions:
Cell studies (on Caco-2 cells and with models of dysfunctional beta cells) suggested that this sugar cane extract counteracts glucose and fructose uptake in intestinal cells and even restores insulin production in dysfunctional beta cells![6]
SUGAR CANE AGAINST SOME TYPES OF CANCER
Numerous plant polyphenols are considered to be beneficial to health and, thanks to their antioxidant effect, act as anti-inflammatory agents, among other things.
Australian researchers have now successfully treated various cancer cell lines, including intestinal (LIM2045), lung, ovarian, blood and skin cancer cells, with a sugar cane extract with a high antioxidant and polyphenol content. The extract left normal intestinal epithelial cells unaffected, but showed no effect on breast cancer cells of the ZR-75-1 line and colon cancer cells of the HT29 line.[7]
Finally, Brazilian researchers isolated a flavone from sugar cane juice and were able to show that it has an even stronger antioxidant effect than trolox (a vitamin E derivative that is used as a reference when measuring the antioxidant capacity of a substance). Furthermore, this flavone demonstrated in vitro (in the test tube) antiproliferative effects against several human cancer cell lines.[8]
References
1 Syed Rizwan Abbas et al.: Phenolic profile, antioxidant potential and DNA damage protecting activity of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum). In: Food Chemistry. 2014. PMID 24206679
2 Amandeep Singh et al.: Phytochemical profile of sugarcane and its potential health aspects. In: Pharmacognosy Reviews. 2015. PMID 26009693
3 Kengo Iwata et al.: Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Top Extract Ameliorates Cognitive Decline in Senescence Model SAMP8 Mice: Modulation of Neural Development and Energy Metabolism. In: Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. 2020. PMID 33123536
4 Sadia Wazir Khan et al.: PROTECTIVE EFFECT OF SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM L. (SUGAR CANE) JUICE ON ISONIAZID INDUCED HEPATOTOXICITY IN MALE ALBINO MICE. In: Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad. 2015. PMID 26411113
5 Liwen Wang et al.: Anti-fibrotic activity of polyphenol-enriched sugarcane extract in rats via inhibition of p38 and JNK phosphorylation. In: Food & Function. 2018. PMID 29322133
6 Jin Ji et al.: Antioxidant and Anti-Diabetic Functions of a Polyphenol-Rich Sugarcane Extract. In: Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2019. PMID 31008696
7 Monica D Prakash et al.: Anti-cancer effects of polyphenol-rich sugarcane extract. In: PLoS One. 2021. PMID 33690618
8 Joaquim Mauricio Duarte-Almeida et al.: Antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of a tricin acylated glycoside from sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) juice. In: Phytochemistry. 2007. PMID 17350657
... and for ALL the best, easiest, and least expensive ways healingcancernaturally.com knows to heal cancer after studying the subject for twenty plus years,
Sponsored Links