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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

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From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Reply-To: ARS News Service <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 15:05:13 -0400
To: "ARS News subscriber" <>
Subject: Grape Compound Shows Promise as Cancer-Preventing Agent

STORY LEAD:  
Another Grape Compound Shows Promise as Cancer-Preventing Agent

___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Luis Pons, (301) 504-1628, lpons@ars.usda.gov
May 17, 2002
___________________________________________

A second compound in grapes has been found to have properties that give it
promise as a cancer-preventing agent, according to an Agricultural
Research Service study.

That finding by ARS research chemist Agnes Rimando, at the agency's
Natural Products Utilization Research Unit at Oxford, Miss., is part of a
study posted on the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry's web site.
ARS is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

In the study, Rimando reports that a compound called pterostilbene
(terro-STILL-bien) possesses similar cancer chemopreventive qualities to
those found in resveratrol, another compound in grapes.  Pterostilbene
also showed strong inhibitory activity against breast cancer cell lines.
But the evidence remains preliminary and the compound has yet to be
evaluated in humans, according to Rimando.

In previous research, resveratrol has been credited with helping grape
plants fight off fungi and has been linked to low incidences of coronary
heart disease among wine-drinking populations.

Unlike resveratrol, however, pterostilbene is already known to posses
anti-diabetic properties. It was first isolated from red sandalwood
(Pterocarpus santalinus). Together with resveratrol, it has also been
identified in Vitis vinifera (wine grape) leaves, in Chardonnay and Gamay
berries infected with fungus, and in healthy Pinot Noir and Gamay berries.

The study, prompted by pterostilbene's close structural similarity to
resveratrol, was conducted with the use of a mouse mammary gland culture
model that was exposed to a chemical carcinogen. The carcinogen caused
precancerous cells on which the compound was tested. The mouse mammary
gland test was performed by Rimando's collaborators at the University of
Illinois at Chicago.

Rimando conducted the study with five other scientists, including plant
physiologist Stephen O. Duke, the Natural Products Utilization Research
Unit's research leader, and John M. Pezzuto and Rajendra Mehta at the
University of Illinois at Chicago. The study was funded by USDA, the
University of Illinois at Chicago and the National Cancer Institute.

___________________________________________
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