Eating foods like celery and parsley which contain the naturally occurring flavanoid apigenin may help prevent leukemia, Dutch scientists said on January 28.
Maikel Peppelenbosch of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands said tests showed that apigenin - a common component of fruit and vegetables - was able to halt the development of two kinds of cells in leukemia and cut their survival chances.
The findings suggest apigenin could hold promise for preventing leukemia, Peppelenbosch said. But he warned that his study had also found the compound has chemotherapy resistance properties, suggesting it might interfere with standard treatments for people already diagnosed with leukemia. Flavanoids are compounds with antioxidant properties that protect cells against damage by oxygen molecules.