Simple Tea Creates Nano Gold Particles for Fighting Cancer

Simple Tea Creates Nano Gold Particles for Fighting Cancer



NaturalNews.com printable article
Originally published July 16 2009

Simple Tea Creates Nano Gold Particles for Fighting Cancer
by David Gutierrez, staff writer

(NaturalNews) Scientists have discovered a way to create cancer-fighting
nanoparticles using nothing but gold salts and a cup of Darjeeling tea,
according to a paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry.

Nanoparticles are particles much smaller than those commonly used in
chemical or industrial applications, small enough that they can pass through
cell membranes designed to keep foreign particles out. Because even widely
studied elements and compounds act drastically different on the nano scale,
nanotechnology is a burgeoning area of scientific research.

Most nanoparticles are manufactured during intensive industrial processes
involving toxic chemicals and byproducts. Recently, however, researchers at
the University of Missouri-Columbia discovered a process for producing
nanoparticles by adding gold salts to a soybean-water mixture. Naturally
occurring soy phytochemicals interact with the salts to produce stable gold
nanoparticles, with no toxic byproducts.

"Our new process only takes what nature has made available to us and uses
that to produce a technology that has already proven to have far-reaching
impacts in technology and medicine," researcher Kattesh Katti said.

Researchers then repeated the same procedure with Darjeeling tea instead of
soy, and found that once again, phytochemicals naturally found in the tea
transformed the salts into pure, nano-scale particles of gold. Furthermore,
the phytochemicals bind to the outside of the gold particles. This means
that the microscopic particles could be injected into tumor cells, carrying
cancer-fighting tea compounds directly to where they could provide the most
benefit.

"Throughout history, tea drinking has been directly attributed to a plethora
of health benefits," Katti said. "Our discovery has provided a practical way
to deliver cancer-fighting phytochemicals directly to tumor cells through
gold nanoparticles."

The researchers selected gold for their research because it is very stable,
chemically, and therefore is less likely to lead to side effects in the body
They said that the production process they have pioneered could easily be
replicated on a larger scale.

Sources for this story include: www.dailymail.co.uk; www.devicelink.com.



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