Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States and is also the one that is most likely to cause death. The disease is so prevalent that the National Cancer Institute claims that some 12 percent of American women will be diagnosed with the disease at some point during their lifetime.

Researchers from Cairo University and Ain Shams University in Egypt, however, claim that this can all be prevented with the help of volatile lemon essential oil, which they were able to distill from the leaves and branches of lemon trees.

Volatile essential oils from lemons help fight breast cancer

According to a study published in the Journal of Essential Oil-bearing Plants, volatile lemon essential oil exhibits cytotoxic activity against breast carcinoma cells, seemingly promoting apoptosis or cell death in cancer cells.

According to the study, this property can be traced to three of the oil’s main components, namely limonene, geranial and neral.

Limonene is the major constituent of citrus fruit oils and is found in large concentrations in orange, tangerine and grapefruit oils. It is also found in moderate amounts in lemon and mandarin oils.

A separate study from the University of Arizona showed that limonene helped decrease breast tumor cell expression in women recently diagnosed with breast cancer by up to 22 percent.

Aside from showing anti-cancer properties, limonene has also been shown to help prevent several common side effects of chemotherapy such as oxidative damage, inflammation and kidney damage.

Geranial and neral, on the other hand, are often found together in the form of a compound called citral. This compound has been observed as having spasmolytic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antioxidant and even chemopreventive properties. While citral is usually found in lemongrass leaves, it can also be found in citrus plants such as lemons, oranges and grapefruit.

These components, the researchers said, effectively helped increase the level of enzymes related to cell death upon their introduction to breast cancer cell cultures. These findings led them to consider using volatile lemon essential oil as a possible addition to existing treatment options for breast cancer. They added that the production of such oil would prove to be economical as large amounts of leaves and branches are trimmed off from citrus trees every year.

That said, the researchers noted that further in vivo studies are needed in order to fully understand the cytotoxic activity of the oil, as well as its other effects on the human body before it gets considered as a viable treatment option for the deadly disease.

How can I add limonene and citral into my lifestyle?

Limonene, one of the main components of the oil used by the Egyptian research team in their study, is available in the form of both topical oils and concentrated supplements. This is the same for citral, which is available in the form of lemongrass essential oil and is mostly used for topical and aromatherapy applications.

Despite the relative convenience offered by these options, however, experts say that the consumption of whole, organic citrus fruits such as lemons and oranges might still be the best option for most people. These fruits often contain many anticancer substances and nutrients, including those not found in the essential and volatile oils.

This is supported by a meta-analysis that found that a high intake of citrus fruits is associated with a 10 percent reduction in breast cancer incidence.

With that said, while there are no strict dietary guidelines as to how many citrus fruits one can eat in an entire day, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations notes that five servings of fruits are enough to provide health benefits to the human body.

Lemons and other citrus fruits such as oranges are potent superfoods capable of protecting the body against deadly diseases such as breast cancer. And while essential oils and supplements derived from these fruits are now commonplace on the market, it is still better to consume the actual fruits instead.

Sources:

Seer.Cancer.gov

TandFOnline.com

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 1

PubMed.NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov 2

FAO.org