ABSTRACT
Plants are taking an important place in the treatment of various diseases. Especially tomato and its products have been documented to play a significant role in the treatment of prostate disesases. One of the constituents of tomato is lycopene, which is a carotenoid found predominantly in tomato and tomato products. Lycopene is not destroyed during the processing of food; rather, its bioavailability improves. It plays an important role in reducing risk of prostate cancer because of its high antioxidant power. Cis-lycopene has been shown to predominate in both benign and malignant prostate tissues, suggesting a possible beneficial effect of high cis-isomer concentrations, and also the involvement of tissue isomerases in in vivo isomerization from all-trans to cis form. The plasma AD2 (adenosine deaminase isoform) is also increased in most cancers. Adenosine deaminase plays an important part in purine metabolism and DNA turnover. It irreversibly deaminates adenosine, converting it to the related nucleoside inosine, which then is deribosylated and converted to hypoxanthine. In some studies, it was shown that tomato extract significantly inhibits the adenosine deaminase of cancerous tissues, thereby eliminating this advantage of cancer cells, which might be the basis for the beneficial effect of tomato in prostate cancers.
