The findings, published online in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, indicate an extract of the chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) helped kill off cancer cells, probably through programmed cell death, when used in combination with standard drug therapy.
 

Chokeberry is a wild berry that grows on the eastern side of North America in wetlands and is loaded with vitamins and antioxidants, including various polyphenols — compounds that are believed to scavenge the harmful byproducts of normal cell activity, Medical Xpress reports. 
 

The study, by researchers at King's College Hospital and the University of Southampton, suggests that adding nutraceuticals to chemotherapy may improve the effectiveness of conventional drugs, particularly in hard to treat cancers, such as pancreatic cancer.
 

In tests in the lab, the researchers found pancreatic cancer cells died within 48 hours of being treated with the berry extract along with the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, but the combination did not harm normal healthy tissues.
 

"These are very exciting results,” said researcher Bashir Lwaleed, at the University of Southampton. “The low doses of the extract greatly boosted the effectiveness of gemcitabine, when the two were combined. In addition, we found that lower doses of the conventional drug were needed, suggesting either that the compounds work together synergistically, or that the extract exerts a ‘supra-additive’ effect. This could change the way we deal with hard to treat cancers in the future."
 

Similar experimental studies have suggested chokeberry extract seems to induce cell death and curb invasiveness in brain cancer, and it highlights the potential therapeutic effects of particular polyphenols found in green tea, soya beans, grapes, mulberries, peanuts, and turmeric, Lwaleed said.