A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation – the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment – by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts. The results in human volunteers, backed by parallel evidence obtained in mice, show that the degree of skin redness caused by UV rays, which is an accurate index of the inflammation and cell damage caused by UV radiation, is markedly reduced in extract-treated skin.
Importantly, notes investigator Paul Talalay, M.D., professor of pharmacology, this chemical extract is not a sunscreen. Unlike sunscreens, it does not absorb UV light and prevent its entry into the skin. Rather, the extract works inside cells by boosting the production of a network of protective enzymes that defend cells against many aspects of UV damage. Consequently, the effects are long-lasting; the protection lasts for several days, even after the extract is no longer present on or in the skin.
I’ve told you, before. I’ll tell you, again. Broccoli rules!
#0, BEEF with Broccoli rules! Somebody pass the soy sauce.
I wonder if this is due to the brassinolide in the broccoli sprout, or due to the the UV resonance with chlorophyl, which then fluoresces into harmless red light. If it is the latter, rubbing spinach all over yourself would be just as effective.
The beach is gonna look like a Star Trek convention in a coupla years.
If you’re thinking about making your own home made broccoli sprout extract, think again because the (broccoli) seeds you can buy are usually coated with pesticides and fungicides as a profilactic measure to protect the seeds.
Why not just wait two years, and let your broccoli in your garden go to flower, and eventually go to seed?
This would negate the effects of pesticides and fungicides of those store bought seeds. I have been growing vegetables like this for quite some time. Some of the veggies do not get eaten, but are dried, and kept for seed. The following year, and in future years, the plants have grown accustomed to their environment, and tend to do as well, if not better than those with chemicals on them.
On the other hand, there are always certified organic seeds.
In response to Li’s comment, it’s the sulforaphane that provides the protection. http://www.broccosprouts.com
#4
“Why not just wait two years, and let your broccoli in your garden go to flower, and eventually go to seed?”
That would be the best way to know if the seeds you’re using are pesticide free.
The other good thing about broccoli is that it makes you fart. I eat a lot to be able to keep up with my dogs.
Oh yeah, Broccoli makes the Bonds movies too.
And a tomato extract works best at keeping insects from biting. Pretty soon, we’ll just have to cover ourselves with a salad, to be immune to everything. Only we’ll all look like a character from a Lost In Space episode (“The Great Vegatable Rebellion”).
Not only against ultraviolet radiation, Broccoli is wonderful, it has anticancer properties which are scientifically documented, it contains indole-3-carbinol, a molecule found in Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables of its family, the Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, that after being digested is converted into diindolylmethane, an active constituent that have exerted certain anticancer properties in Breast cancer studies, so keep on eating it 😉