Lemon Grass

Drink Causes Apoptosis to Cancer Cells
(Apoptosis) noun: a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival.

A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube.

At first, Benny Zabidov, who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on a pastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn't understand why so many cancer patients from around the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass (Malay name: serai, Cantonese called it heong mao).

It turned out that their doctors had sent them. 'They had been told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemon grass steeped in it on the days that they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments,'

It all began when researchers at Ben Gurion University of the Negev discovered last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

Citral is the key component that gives the lemony aroma and taste in several herbal plants such as lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus). The study found that citral causes cancer cells to 'commit suicide: using apoptosis, a mechanism called programmed cell death.' A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt the cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube. While the citral killed the cancerous cells, the normal cells remained unharmed.

Put the loose grass in hot water, and drink about eight glasses each day.'

Wonderful news, isn't it? Most beneficial to us here because the lemon grass is such a common cultivated or even garden plant. We consume quite a lot of it in cooking our curry, tomyam soup, etc. But now we can actually make drinks out of it. Put a stick of it in a glass of hot water. Presto! You have a glass of anti-cancer drink! Aren't we darn lucky