An ordinary spice used in Asian dishes has proved to have strong anti-cancer properties. Baylor University researchers have found that curcumin — the active ingredient in turmeric, used in curry dishes — can bolster the effects of chemotherapy for colon cancer patients and may suppresses tumor growth.

The study — led by Ajay Goel, M.D., director of the Department of Epigenetics and Cancer Prevention at Baylor — indicates curcumin sensitizes cancer cells to the effects of chemotherapy and reduces DNA damage. That could make curcumin a powerful new weapon in the war on cancer by dramatically improving the effectiveness of chemo in treating the many patients who don't respond to it or become resistant to its effects over time, the Newsmax Health reported.

"Colon cancer is still the third leading cause of deaths in the U.S. and … the reason there are so many deaths associated with colon cancer is that it is diagnosed at a very late state and the patients who are put on treatment with different drugs that we have available — there are challenges with those drugs," Dr. Goel tells Newsmax Health.

Although you can derive the benefits of curcumin by eating foods that contain turmeric, such as South Asian and Indian curry dishes, most Americans don't eat enough of it to make a difference. Consequently, taking a curcumin supplement — Dr. Goeal recommends a commercially available formulation known as BCM-95.

Curcumin is not only beneficial to cancer patients. Last year, Dr. Goel found that the spice compound has powerful antidepressant effects, as well. In a study published last year, he found the spice compound is nearly as powerful as Prozac in relieving symptoms of depression in people suffering from the mental-health disorder.