KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany, March 28 (UPI) -- An apple a day may not only keep the doctor away, an apple, or apple juice, may also help prevent colon cancer, German researchers said.
Dr. Dieter Schrenk of the Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern, in Kaiserslautern, Germany, said both apple pectin and polyphenol-rich apple juice components enhance biological mechanisms that produce anti-carcinogenic compounds during the fermentation process.
In laboratory tests, Schrenk found that by the increased production of butyrate via the addition of apple components, histone deacetlyases were inhibited.
Butyrate is suggested to be a chemopreventative metabolite that might prevent the occurrence of colorectal cancer.
With slowed production of histone deacetlyases, there would be significantly less growth of precancerous and tumor cells, Schrenk said in a statement.
The study, published in the April issue of Nutrition, said apples pectin-rich apple products can be expected to exert anti-carginogenic effects in the colon.
