A Natural Cancer Drug From Soggy Soybeans?

Hi ya! Bean wondering when you'd click on by today. Now that you're here, pour yourself a nice mugga and avail yourself of one or more of those virtual treats next to the coffee urn. Say...do you like soy? Here in Thailand, we eat it almost every day in one form of another.

In 1963, scientists discovered the Bowman-Birk Protease Inhibitor (BBI), a tiny protein in soybeans that exhibits strong cancer chemoprotective and anticancer treatment properties. Unfortunately, little has been done to develop BBI as a potential anti-cancer drug since its so difficult to extract from the bean’s hull.

As a byproduct of the soybean industry, the hulls themselves aren’t expensive, but up until recently, a very complex extraction sequence was needed to separate the trace amounts of BBI from each one.

But recent research out of the University of Missouri may have identified an extraction method that’s both amazingly simple and inexpensive: soaking the beans in water. (Duh!) Soaking soybeans is a common practice for those who make their own tofu or soy milk, and now scientists say that about four hours in a warm bath will cause the beans to naturally release large amounts of BBI that can easily be harvested from the water.

Of course, it will be quite some time before we can know for sure that the BBI extracted through the soaking method is potent enough for drug development. But in preliminary tests, the extract proved capable of stopping the dividing of in-vitro breast cancer cell division.

On a Japanese cooking show we watched the other night, they said that the main reason Japanese people live so long is because soybeans form a big part of their diet...miso soup, miso paste, soy sauce, fermented soy sauce, soy sauce with citrus fruit... soybeans in soup, stew, as a veg, in a salad... If it is as powerful a disease inhibitor as they say, then maybe there's something to that, eh? I often have it with my oatmeal in the morning. How about you?

See ya.

Bob