A report in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research informs that three-day-old broccoli sprout eliminates Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections - a widespread type of bacterial infection and a major cause of stomach cancer.

For almost twenty years, the cancer protective effects of sulforaphane, a phytochemical from broccoli has been documented and acknowledged. However, the effect of broccoli in humans on the bacterial infection that leads to stomach cancer is explained for the first time in this study, in which 70 grams of fresh broccoli sprouts or its equivalence in alfalfa sprouts were arbitrarily given daily to 48 Helicobacter-infected Japanese men and women for a period of eight weeks.

Jed Fahey, Sc.D., a faculty research associate in the Department of Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine writes: "Broccoli has recently entered the public awareness as a preventive dietary agent. This study supports the emerging evidence that broccoli sprouts may be able to prevent cancer in humans, not just in lab animals…