Olive Oil Compound Kills Cancer Cells in Minutes

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An ingredient in extra-virgin olive oil kills a variety of human cancer cells without harming healthy ones.

Scientists knew that oleocanthal killed some cancer cells, but weren’t really sure how. They thought the compound might be targeting a key protein in cancer cells that triggers a programmed cell death, known as apoptosis, and decided to test their hypothesis.

“We needed to determine if oleocanthal was targeting that protein and causing the cells to die,” says Paul Breslin, professor of nutritional sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers and coauthor of a new study published in Molecular and Cellular Oncology.

Dead in 30 Minutes

After applying oleocanthal to the cancer cells, the researchers discovered that the cancer cells were dying very quickly—within 30 minutes to an hour. Programmed cell death takes between 16 and 24 hours, so the scientists realized that something else had to be causing the cancer cells to break down and die.