Glucosinolates. Anthocyanins. Zeaxanthin. Lycopene. Isoflavones. What could sound more appetizing?

Scientists with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center understand that people eat foods, not chemicals. Their focus — functional foods that may help prevent disease: Broccoli. Black raspberries. Spinach. Tomatoes. Soy.

Work on functional foods could bring not only good health, but good business. Battelle estimates the U.S. market for functional foods at $18 billion.

But health is more on the minds of these scientists. In one example, an interdisciplinary team of food, horticultural, medical, and dental researchers is studying whether black raspberries can stop or slow the biological processes that lead to oral, esophageal, and colon cancers.

Steve Schwartz, OARDC professor of food science, has extracted anthocyanins from black raspberries to study how they act in the body. His work supports that of researchers Gary Stoner and Chris Weghorst in the College of Medicine and Susan Mallery in the College of Dentistry in examining the uptake of anthocyanins into oral tissues.

In a collaboration with cancer researcher Steve Clinton, Schwartz isolated compounds, called glucosinolates, from broccoli sprouts that may fight bladder cancer. During chewing and digestion, these phytochemicals become substances called isothiocyanates, which, when tested in the lab, had a profound effect against three forms of bladder cancer, including the aggressive human invasive transitional cell carcinoma.

In other studies, Schwartz has found that partnering vegetables with healthful fats, such as those in salad dressing or in avocado, helps the body absorb phytochemicals such as beta carotene, lycopene, and other carotenoids.  

“People are being encouraged to eat more vegetables, many of which are very high in carotenoids and extremely low in fat,” Schwartz, said. “But we’re finding it takes at least a little fat to help the body increase absorption of many of those carotenoids.”

Anything that reduces incidence of cancer could have a vast effect: The American Cancer Society predicts Ohio will see more than 24,000 deaths, 61,000 new cases of cancer in 2006, while the National Institutes of Health puts the overall costs for cancer in 2005 at $209.9 billion, including $74 billion for health expenditures and $17.5 billion in costs of lost productivity.

But functional foods also may have an impact on other chronic illnesses — heart disease, hypertension — even cataracts. Human nutrition researchers Josh Bomser and Mark Failla have examined phytochemicals lutein and zeaxanthin, abundant in leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach, and collard greens. They’ve found these substances reduce damage brought on by ultraviolet light that can cause cataracts. Each year, 1.2 million cataract surgeries across the United States cost consumers more than $3 billion in health-care costs.