COLLEGE STATION, Texas, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say the mango should be ranked as a super food despite its lower scores as an anti-oxidant.
Dr. SusanneTalcott, a food scientist at Texas AgriLife Research in College Station, says in terms of anti-oxidant power the mango does not come close to the blueberry, acai or pomegranate. The mango has four to five times less anti-oxidant capacity than an average wine grape.
Nevertheless, Talcott and her husband, Dr. Steve Talcott, tested mango polyphenol -- substances linked to good health -- extracts in the lab on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancer cells.
The researchers found the mangoes had some impact on lung, leukemia and prostate cancers, but were most effective on the most common breast and colon cancers.
"What we found is that not all cell lines are sensitive to the same extent to an anti-cancer agent, but the breast and colon cancer lines underwent apotosis, or programmed cell death," Dr. Susanne Talcott says in a statement. "Additionally, we found that when we tested normal colon cells side by side with the colon cancer cells, that the mango polyphenolics did not harm the normal cells."
