Olive Oil Compound Kills Cancer Cells
Spares Healthy Functioning Cells

“We needed to determine if oleocanthal was targeting that protein and causing the cells to die,” says Paul Breslin, Ph.D., a professor of nutritional sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers and co-author of the study, published inMolecular and Cellular Oncology.
The research also found that the olive oil compound didn’t damage healthy cells. Breslin states that the compound merely “put them to sleep” for a day, after which they resumed their normal, healthy functioning.
Senior author David Foster, Ph.D., of Hunter College, points out that additional studies are necessary to determine if the compound halts tumor growth. “We also need to understand why it is that cancerous cells are more sensitive to oleocanthal than non-cancerous cells,” he says.