Parsley is a potent anticancer food and is a staple in Mediterranean and South American cuisine, but sadly in many Western countries, it is little more than a garnish.
Parsley contains the anticancer flavonoid apigenin. Apigenin blocks aromatase, an enzyme in the body that turns androgens into estrogens. Blocking aromatase can inhibit breast and prostate cancer cells. Apigenin has been found to make cancer cells more sensitive to chemotherapy by activating a tumor-suppressor gene called P53. (Source)
Apigenin has also been reported to suppress various human cancers by triggering apoptosis (cell death) and autophagy, inducing cell cycle arrest, suppressing cell migration and invasion, stimulating an immune response, and directly killing cancer stem cells.
“Apigenin shows significant cell cytotoxicity selectively against various types of cancer cells with low or no toxicity to normal cells. These selective anti-cancer effects are further shown to suppress cancer stem cells (CSCs) in various types of cancers. CSCs are closely associated with drug resistance, metastasis, and the recurrence of cancer.” (Source)
A study from Ohio State University showed that apigenin binds with an estimated 160 proteins in the body allowing it to have a wide array of beneficial effects, as opposed to pharmaceutical drugs, which typically only target one molecule.
A unique characteristic of cancer cells is that two types of mRNA splicing occur as opposed to only one in a normal cell. This abnormal splicing defect is found in roughly 80% of cancer cells and is a mechanism used by cancer cells to stay alive.
The Ohio State researchers observed that apigenin influences a specific protein called hnRNPA2 thereby restoring the single-splice characteristic to breast cancer cells. Restoring this function allows cancer cells to act like normal cells and die naturally and may also make them more sensitive to chemotherapy drugs. (Source)
For further enlightenment, scroll down and look at Table 1 in this study outlining the numerous molecular cancer targets influenced by apigenin.
Apigenin is found in many fruits and vegetables, but the highest concentrations are in celery, chamomile, and parsley.
Foods with the highest levels of apigenin (micrograms/gram)
-Celery 191 ug/g
-Fresh parsley 2154.6 ug/g
-Chamomile 3,000-5,000 μg/g
-Dried parsley 45,035 μg/g
Dried parsley has the highest concentration of apigenin by a large margin, over twenty times more than fresh parsley! (Source)
Plants grown outside organically produce natural pesticides to protect themselves. Some of these compounds, known as polyacetylenes, are incredibly beneficial for human health and act as direct anticancer agents. One of these is a flavone called falcarinol in carrots, which I highlight in my book Chris Beat Cancer.
For years I was under the impression that carrots had the highest levels of falcarinol… Enter parsnips and parsley.
Parsely contains high levels of falcarinol, four times more than parsnips and seven times more than carrots. (Carrots 82.23 mg/kg, Parsnips 164.74, Parsley 629.36 mg/kg ) (Source)
Note: Boiling leaches falcarinol from carrots. Raw consumption is best. Cooking whole carrots before chopping preserves 25% more of this nutrient than chopping before cooking. (Source)
Parsely might just be one of the most overlooked/underrated anticancer foods. In addition to apigenin and falcarinol, parsley contains many more anticancer compounds including quercetin, luteolin, and kaempferol.
Three ways to get more parsley into your body:
-Juice it. Throw parsley in the mix with other veggie juice blends.
-Eat it. Use it as a base in the Giant Cancer Fighting Salad. Make tabbouleh (See my Quinoa Tabbouleh recipe in Beat Cancer Kitchen.) Make chimichurri. I’m a huge fan of chimichurri, which is like a spicy pesto made with parsley instead of basil.
-Sprinkle it. Put dried parsley on your salads, on cooked veggies, and add it to soups and smoothies.
Cowboy Math for Parsley Megadosing One bunch of fresh parsley with stems removed, yields about two cups of parsley, which is roughly 123 total grams giving you 265 milligrams of apigenin. You can get an equivalent dose from 6 tablespoons of dried parsley.
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