Ancient blue war paint from plant rich in cancer fighting compound

Glucobrassicin, a compound in plants which is known to be an anti-cancer agent has been discovered in a plant that gave ancient Britons and Celts their blue war paint.

The compound, traditionally associated with broccoli has been found in far greater quantities in the plant Woad, another member of the brassicaceae family like cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collards, kale, turnips, radish and kohl rabi, mustard, horseradish, wasabi and watercress.

Glucobrassicin has been found to be effective against breast cancer.

Stefania Galletti and her team at the University of Bologna, Italy, found that the plant contains twenty times more cancer fighting chemical glucobrassicin than its relative, broccoli, which they enhanced to nearly 65 times using various treatments.

The compound plays a defensive role in plants, and the researchers found that when leaves are damaged, for example, by insects, they are able to increase levels of glucobrassicin by 30% which is released as a defence mechanism.

Its derivatives can kill some plant pests, and also appear to have anti-tumoral properties which are particularly effective against breast cancer.

Glucobrassicin has been shown to play an active role in flushing out cancer-causing chemicals including derivatives of oestrogen; women with higher levels of this hormone are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

Although there have been many studies on the health benefits of broccoli and other commonly consumed vegetables from the same family it has been difficult to extract enough of the broccoli compound to carry out extensive tests.

Galletti's team hope that by using this cheap, rich source, in depth research can now be carried out to examine how the compound acts in the body.

Researchers have previously suggested that eating vegetables rich in compounds such as glucobrassicin might help protect people against cancer and another study has found that people who ate foods rich in glucosinolates had reduced levels of chemicals linked to smoking-related lung cancer.

The research is published in the Journal of the Science of Agriculture.