From a health care perspective, the best cigarette is no cigarette,
but for the millions of people who try to quit smoking every year,
researchers from Cornell University may have found a way to make
cigarette smoking less toxic.
Using natural antioxidant extracts in cigarette filters, the
researchers were able to demonstrate that lycopene and grape seed
extract drastically reduced the amount of cancer-causing free radicals
passing through the filter. The research will be the 1500th article
published in the ground-breaking Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), the only peer-reviewed, PubMed indexed video-journal.
"The implications of this technique can help reduce the hazardous
effects of tobacco smoke," said Dr. Boris Dzilkovski, who co-authored
the paper, "because free radicals are a major group of carcinogens."
Scientists have tried to make safer cigarettes in the past.
Haemoglobin (which transports oxygen in red blood cells) and activated
carbon have been shown to reduce free-radicals in cancer smoke by up to
90 percent, but because of the cost, the combination has not been
successfully introduced to the market.
JoVE Content Director, Dr. Aaron Kolski-Andreaco, is very
excited to be publishing this article as the journal's landmark 1500th
article.
"Practically, this research could lead to an alternative type of
cigarette filter with a free radical scavenging additive," said
Kolski-Andreaco. "It could lead to a less harmful cigarette."
The watch the full video article, please click here: http://www.jove.com/video/3406/a-protocol-for-detecting-and-scavenging-gas-phase-free-radicals-in-mainstream-cigarette-smoke
Source: EurekAlert!
