Medical Properties of Asparagus

Asparagus - yummy with sauce, great with salmon and makes a fantastic salad with blanched almonds and vinegar. However, as well as being a delicious spring vegetable, asparagus may have some amazing health benefits. I recently published an article in Engineers Australia on medical break-throughs in the treatment of prostate cancer and received a call from a reader telling me how he "cured" his prostate condition by consuming asparagus and asparagus juice. Having been involved with complementary health for many years, I wanted to find out if this person's claims had any validity or whether this was just another "fad" cure. Checking various research sources, asparagus does have a modern use in US herbal medicine as a diuretic (something to help you pass urine), urinary tract infections and for kidney stones. Other unproven folk uses for asparagus root (not the vegetable) include prevention of kidney stones, rheumatism, liver disease, asthma and gout. (Source - PDR for Herbal Medicines 3rd Edition, Culpeper's Colour Herbal). Asparagus, however, is not commonly used in Australia and the UK for medicinal purposes except in homeopathy. In order to find the latest research, I visted Pubmed and conducted a full search for medical trials involving asparagus.

As at the date of this article, over 350 abstracts (summaries of articles) listed research or observed effects of the humble asparagus. Some of the more interesting research found that asparagus juice appeared to reduce the effect of cell mutation (in certain limited cases) and that asparagus extract has "been shown to inihibit the growth of human leukemia HL-60 cells". Although this research is far from conclusive, it appears as if there could really be some anti-cancer properties in asparagus albeit in certain limited situations. Perhaps there is some truth in the reader's claims that asparagus "cured" his condition but certainly not enough evidence, in my view, to claim that asparagus is a cure for cancer.

Because of the lack of evidence, I would strongly discourage anyone who has cancer to try "asparagus therapy". The research is inconclusive and limited to a few trials of cells in test tubes. I have been unable to find any proper clinical trials where asparagus was used as a "cure" for cancer or any other serious medical condition. You also need to be aware that over consumption of any food can have side effects - again as there is no research available it is not always possible to know what imbalances you may cause by eating to much of a particular food.

If you do have cancer, you should always seek proper medical assistance as, to the best of Western medical knowledge, this will give you the best chance of a cure. By all means discuss the use of asparagus with your doctor or specialist and if they are happy with you doing this, try it as long as it does no harm. But never rely solely upon unproven herbal treatments when dealing with serious conditions such as cancer.

The lesson - never dismiss any claims of the health benefits of a certain herb or food but always validate these claims with either traditional usage, empirical (observed) evidence or scientific studies.