You might have heard about the acai berries and how healthy they are and all about the list of nutrients that they are packed with. However, recent studies indicate that these little berries might have the answer to giving cancer a tough fight and overcoming it. At least, the University of Florida says so.

Recently, the Florida University completed a study, which aimed at studying one of the claims that is attached with this berry.

The study involved making six unlike chemical extracts from the pulp of the acai berry. Then each extract was made into seven different concentrations.

Now, the results of the study showed that no less than 4 of those extracts managed to kill numerous cancer cells, in a period of at least 24 hours. They managed to destroy about 35% to 86% of these cancer cells, varying according to the extract as well as the concentration.

Stephen Talcott, who is the assistant professor at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, has this to say. He says that the extracts of acai berries in fact, set off a self-destruct reaction in about 86% of the leukaemia cells that were tested.

However, he also added that you should not yet be too excited about this. The reason is that the tests were done on cultures of cancer cells rather than on real human patients.

Nevertheless, it is hard to contain the excitement. Last year, this Brazilian fruit has literally taken over the health world. It has even attracted several companies that have begun to market and process the acai berry. However, the fact remains that while acai managed to show such positive results with cancer cells, several other fruits that were rich in antioxidants also had shown similar results.

Antioxidants are special chemicals that help to protect your cells from free radicals that cause damage to the cells. The principal cause behind cancer is considered to be damage caused by free radicals. As a result, it is believed that the antioxidants combine with the free radicals and make them harmless and thus they stop them from harming the cells any further.

However, it is still unknown as to the exact mechanism with which the antioxidants work on the cancer cells. Besides, there are other factors such as lifestyle and family history that come into the picture.

While many claims are made regarding this fruit, it is a wonderful step by this University to make a check into the claims.