Lee Swanson Research Update

Black Raspberry Holds Promise in Esophageal Cancer Prevention

September 2007

Freeze-dried black raspberries could help prevent the formation of tumors of the esophagus, if the results of a rat study also hold true for humans.

Researchers from Ohio State University set out to find whether dietary freeze-dried black raspberries administered in the short term could aid tumor regression and improve the chance of survival rate with induced esophageal tumors.

Their experiment was conducted on a group of four-week-old rats, which were fed a control diet for 15 weeks and regularly injected with a tumor-inducing chemical called NMBA. At 19 weeks the rats had an average of five to six tumors on their esophagi. For the next seven weeks, they were fed a diet containing 5%, 10% or 15% freeze-dried black raspberry.

The researchers found that adding berries to the diets of the rats didn't cause a significant increase in their survival. However, they did find that when the rats were fed a berry diet before, during or shortly after administration of the tumor-inducing chemical, fewer tumors developed.

The study concluded in part that: “Dietary FBR (freeze-dried black raspberries) are highly effective in preventing the development of NMBA-induced esophageal tumors in rats when administered before and during NMBA treatment or shortly after NMBA treatment when the esophagi contain preneoplastic lesions of varying degrees of severity.”

Black raspberries were chosen for the experiment because they contain multiple agents that exhibit chemopreventive effects in animals, including vitamins A, C, E and folic acid, calcium, selenium, beta-sitosterol, ellagic and ferulic acids, quercetin and at least five anthocyanins.

Acta Pharmacologica Sinica 28(9):1422-1428, 2007

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