At iHerb modified citrus pectin (MCP) costs 80$ for 1lb of this stuff. Wikipedia has an article here: Modified Citrus Pectin:
Pre-clinical studies indicated that MCP helped reduce the spread of prostate,[5] colon,[6] breast,[7] liver,[8] and skin[9] cancer. Scientists believe that MCP works by inhibiting two key processes involved in cancer progression: angiogenesis and metastasis.[2][10][11] Animals with these types of cancer that were fed MCP had a much lower risk of the tumor spreading to the lungs. For example, one study examined the effects of MCP on lung metastasis from melanoma cells. Researchers injected mice with melanoma cells. In the mice that were also given MCP, significantly fewer tumors spread to the lungs than in the mice that did not receive the supplement. When lung tumors did develop in the mice treated with MCP, the tumors tended to be smaller than those that formed in untreated animals.[1][9]
For a detailed scientific overview CIMER has a great section on it: Modified Citrus Pectin Detailed Scientific Review. It would seem easy enough to make at home with some HCl and NaOH to cleave the HG backbone and cleave some neutral sugars of the pectin molecule. Pectin extraction is a long-time tradition for making jams. Anyone know why its so expensive? Is it because of the end-product purity of MCP? Such that they have to use enzymes and what not?
Seems like a pretty good anti-metastatic cancer agent to me. Also its metal chelation properties seem pretty solid (whether its good for you or not is another question) (1). In (2) the authors claim this in the abstract:
. The gradual decrease of total body heavy metal burden is believed to have played an important role in each patient's recovery and health maintenance. This is the first known documentation of evidence of such results in a clinical report of case studies with possible correlation between clinical outcome and a reduction in toxic heavy metal load in patients using MCP and/or an MCP/alginate complex.
References
01. Phytother Res. 2006 Oct;20(10):859-64.The effect of modified citrus pectin on urinary excretion of toxic elements.Eliaz I, Hotchkiss AT, Fishman ML, Rode D.
02. Forsch Komplementmed. 2007 Dec;14(6):358-64. Epub 2007 Dec 12.Integrative medicine and the role of modified citrus pectin/alginates in heavy metal chelation and detoxification--five case reports.Eliaz I, Weil E, Wilk B.
Edited by Sillewater, 25 December 2011 - 10:28 PM.
