Stevia sweetener kills pancreatic cancer cells

Stevia, the artificial sweetener, kills cancer cells.

It needs to have a twist added, though.  When it’s fermented with bacteria isolated from banana leaves, it combats pancreatic cancer cells, a new study has discovered.

And unlike chemotherapy, it doesn’t harm healthy kidney cells, say investigators from Hiroshima University in Japan.

It could be an important breakthrough in combatting a cancer that has a five-year survival rate for less than 10 percent of patients.  It spreads quickly, and it doesn’t respond to chemotherapy or radiation.

But in laboratory tests, pancreatic cancer cell lines were killed off by the stevia concoction, the researchers reported.

Stevia’s cancer fighting properties have been recognised for several years, but scientists have been unable to isolate its active elements.

The Hiroshima lab has isolated and evaluated the health benefits of more than 1,300 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains from fruits, vegetables, flowers and medicinal plants—and, a banana leaf extract, Lactobacillus plantarum, seems to be the one to unlock stevia’s cancer fighting abilities.

In a separate test, the concoction didn’t harm healthy kidney cells, suggesting it attacks only cancerous cells.

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