Leafy Greens Reverse Toxic Effects

January 25, 2010

This is an article my friend, Trish, sent me when we were discussing chia seeds . Aflatoxins can be found in feeds for horses as well. It looks like the chia plant, which is a type of sage, was used in this study. Not such a bad thing to have growing in your horse lot.

Another excellent source of chlorophyll, as a supplement to feeds for horses not allowed on pasture, is blue green algae . Algae has the vitamins and minerals of fresh grass packed in a nutrient dense package.

I love blue green algae and have used it for years. Horses stay healthy on it and this study helps explain why. This study also helped convince me to look at chia seeds as a fat supplement in feeds for horses because I wanted something that would be OK if some of the seeds grew in the pens.

Here is the study.

Not only are the vitamins and minerals good for you, but eating greens could also save your life, according to a recent study involving scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). 

LLNL researchers Graham Bench and Ken Turteltaub found that giving someone a small dose of chlorophyll (Chla) or chlorophyllin (CHL) – found in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and kale – could reverse the effects of aflatoxin poisoning.

Aflatoxin is a potent, naturally occurring carcinogenic mycotoxin that is associated with the growth of two types of mold: Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Food and food crops most prone to aflatoxin contamination include corn and corn products, cottonseed, peanuts and peanut products, tree nuts and milk. 

Bench and Turteltaub, working with colleagues from Oregon State Univ. and an industry partner, Cephalon Inc., found that greens have chemopreventive potential.

Aflatoxins can invade the food supply at anytime during production, processing, transport and storage. Evidence of acute aflatoxicosis in humans has been reported primarily in developing countries lacking the resources to effectively screen aflatoxin contamination from the food supply.

The study used AMS to provide aflatoxin pharmacokinetic parameters previously unavailable for humans, and suggest that chlorophyll and chlorophyllin co-consumption may limit the bioavailability of ingested aflatoxin in humans, as they do in animal models, according to Bench. 

”The Chla and CHL treatment each significantly reduced aflatoxin absorption and bioavailability,” Bench says. 

The research, which is co-funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Resource for Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, appeared in the December issue of the journal, Cancer Prevention Research.