Broad Bean Protein May Prevent Colon Cancer
(New York, Reuters Health, 4/22/02)

Researchers led by Dr. M. Jordinson of Hammersmith Hospital in London, UK, report that vicia faba agglutinin, a protein found in broad beans, may prevent or slow colon cancer. Vicia faba agglutinin belongs to a group of dietary lectins (plant proteins) that resist digestion, reach the colon relatively intact and bind to the epithelial wall. When researchers put colon cancer cells, which tend to be undifferentiated, in contact with this protein, they began generating new cells with glandlike structures, which suggests a possible way to change tumor behavior