Synthetic Cocoa Compound Is Potent Anti-cancer Agent

Cancer researchers have synthesized a chemical substance normally found in cocoa and demonstrated that it has potent chemotherapeutic potential against certain types of tumor cells.

Cocoa-derived flavanols and procyanidins have been previously reported to exhibit anti-oxidant and anti-tumor properties. In this study, investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center (Washington, DC, USA) studied the cellular growth inhibitory effect of chemically-synthesized procyanidin 3-O-Galloylepicatechin-4b,8-3-O-galloylcatechin (GECGC) on a group of 16 cancer cell and 6 normal cell lines.

They reported in the June 1, 2008, issue of the journal Cell Cycle that four of the tumor cell lines – two colon-cancer lines, a cervical cancer line, and a leukemia line - were sensitive to the compound. The most sensitive lines were those with the shortest doubling time. None of the other cancer lines and none of the six normal cell lines were damaged by GECGC.

"This chemical seems to be safe, which makes sense because it has a structure similar to a natural product in cocoa beans - the same beans that are used to make chocolate,” said first author Dr. Min Kim, an oncology researcher at the Georgetown University Medical Center. "We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you; this study suggests one reason why that might be true. While this work is indeed promising, we have much more study to do before we can say with authority that GECGC has anticancer properties.”


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Georgetown University Medical Center