The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research, CILR, has applied for a patent on legumes compounds to treat cancer. Researchers believe they found properties that might prevent the formation of the blood supply needed by cancerous tumor growth. It is promising enough that there is now a collaboration with French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. In addition, a New Zealand company has expressed interested in the discovery. According to the researchers, "The anti-cancer molecules produced by legumes during the early symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria known as rhizobia. Rhizobia induce legumes to form tiny new root organs called root nodules. The bacteria live in the nodules and provide the plant with useable nitrogen it can convert into proteins." And who said you can't find a way to make money from the study of plant potential for cancer prevention? 

Legumes are the third largest group of flowering plants in the world with more than 18,000 species; including garden peas, peanuts, clover, lentils, chickpeas and various beans such as soybean and green beans. Do we need drugs based on the extraction of single plant compounds to provide the suggested cancer prevention benefits discovered by researchers? Maybe, I really do not know. However, in the meantime, I wonder if simply adding these whole to a diet would provide cancer prevention benefits. Common sense says yes.