MANILA--Health care advocates are hailing it as a ?ray of hope? for cancer patients and ?good news? for the country?s mango industry.

In an ?unexpected and groundbreaking discovery,? scientists at Texas A & M University have discovered that mango extracts can prevent, if not stop, the growth of breast and colon cancer cells.

Mango extracts had ?demonstrated some cancer-fighting ability when tested on lung, leukemia and prostate cancer cells,? according to the university?s agri-life research department which conducted the studies commissioned by the National Mango Board of Orlando, Florida.

Programmed cell death

And when tested on breast and colon cancers, the mango compounds were found to have even stronger anticancer abilities.

?In fact, the mango extracts caused the breast and colon cancer cells to undergo apoptosis, or programmed cell death,? the scientists said.

The studies were conducted by food scientists Dr. Susanne Talcott and her husband and co-researcher, Dr. Steve Talcott, who used the five mango varieties common in the US?Kent, Francine, Ataulfo, Tommy/
Atkins and Haden.

The results of the Talcotts? studies have been posted on the Philippine Cancer Society?s website.

Alex Asuncion, head of the PCS education and information division, described the data as ?very positive? but, like some like DOH officials, wondered if local mango varieties would show the same results.

The most common local mango varieties are the carabao, champagne or honey mango, also known as manggang kalabaw and recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the ?sweeetest in the world?; pico; katchamita or Indian; and the tiny pahutan or paho (mangifera altissima).

Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said she would still have to look into the studies and cautioned local cancer patients against putting too much hope on the development.

Two different things

?Between saying that on a molecular level certain substances found in mango can retard the growth of cancer cells to saying that it will prevent or cure cancer are two different things,? Cabral said.

Still, she said ?fruits are healthy foods and we should be eating our recommended daily allowance of five to six servings of fruits.?

?There is every reason to eat mangoes along with other fruits because they are very healthy,? Cabral said.

Mangoes contain antioxidants and essential nutrients like potassium, copper and 17 amino acids. The peel contains pigments that may have antioxidant properties, including carotenoids and polyphenols, any of which may counteract the free radicals that cause diseases.

The PCS report said the Talcotts ?specifically tested polyphenol extracts from mango? on cancer cells. Polyphenols are natural substances in plants that are the antioxidants that can protect the body from diseases.