Broccoli’s magic ingredient is going to market

Broccoli extract could be synthesised to help treat cancer
Broccoli extract could be synthesised to help treat cancer
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It is good for you, as parents throughout the ages have said — so good, in fact, that broccoli could yield a cancer breakthrough.

Evgen Pharma, a five-person start-up in Liverpool, is hoping to raise £20 million through the Alternative Investment Market, which could value the business at £40 million.

It wants to use the money for clinical trials of sulforaphane, a substance commonly found in broccoli and other brassica vegetables, and hopes to use a synthetic version to treat prostate cancer, breast cancer and certain types of stroke.

Barry Clare, the chairman of Evgen, said: “Back in the Seventies, there were lots of studies suggesting that people who ate a lot of brassica vegetables had a lower incidence of cancer.”

The problem, since then,