Spices in curry may help to cure a certain type of cancer, new research shows.

The findings from researchers in University College Cork showed that molecules -- curcumin -- found in a curry spice have been shown to kill oesophageal cancer cells in the laboratory.

The research, published in the 'British Journal of Cancer', may open the way for curcumin to be used in a potential drug to treat the cancer, said Dr Sharon McKenna, lead study author at the Cork Cancer Research Centre in UCC.

Scientists at the research centre treated oesophageal cancer cells with curcumin -- a chemical found in the spice turmeric.

They found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours. The cells also began to digest themselves. The results additionally showed that curcumin kills cells by triggering lethal cell death signals.

Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat cancerous cells and suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value.

Dr Geraldine O'Sullivan-Coyne, a researcher in the Cork lab, had been looking for ways of killing resistant oesophageal cancer cells. She tested curcumin on them, and found they started to die using an unexpected system of cell messages.

Normally, faulty cells die by committing programmed suicide -- or apoptosis -- which occurs when proteins called caspases are 'switched on'.

But these cells showed no evidence of suicide and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases made no difference to the number of cells that died. This suggested that curcumin attacked the cancer cells using an alternative cell signalling system.

Oesophageal cancer caused the death of actor John Thaw, who played Inspector Morse in the detective series.

According to Professor Gerald O'Sullivan, director of the Cork Cancer Research Centre, the research opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.

"The incidence of oesophageal cancer has gone up by more than a half since the 1970s, particularly in the western world, and this is thought to be linked to rising rates of obesity, alcohol intake and reflux disease, so finding ways to both treat and prevent this disease is extremely important," he said.

"The development of natural compounds as chemo-preventative agents is also a very promising area of research."