It may not be particularly appetising, but scientists are finding that the bottle gourd, one of the most common vegetables used in Indian cuisine, has the potential to fightcancer.

The latex sap or juice in the vegetable contains lectins, a diverse class of proteins that destroyed cancerous tumour cells in mice, a group of Indian scientists has published in the scientific journal, International Immunopharmacology, earlier this month.

The scientists have also found that the proteins affec ted human cancer cells kept in a petri dish in a laboratory. "The lectins stop the growth of new blood vessels. Cancer cells draw nutrition from new blood vessels at a much faster pace than normal blood vessels...............Read more

Source: The Times of India