Nutrients in red wine may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer, a new study showed. (File Photo)

  　LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Nutrients in red wine may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer, a new study showed.

    Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) came to the conclusion after a study of male mice that were fed a plant compound found in red wine called resveratrol. The findings were published Saturday in the online edition of Carcinogenesis.

    The nutrients in red wine have shown anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties. Other sources of resveratrol in the diet include grapes, raspberries, peanuts and blueberries.

    In the study resveratrol-fed mice showed an 87 percent reduction in their risk of developing prostate tumors that contained the worst kind of cancer-staging diagnosis. The mice that proved to have the highest cancer-protection effect earned it after seven months of consuming resveratrol in a powdered formula mixed with their food.

    Other mice in the study, those fed resveratrol but still developed a less-serious form of prostate cancer, were 48 percent more likely to have their tumor growth halted or slowed when compared to mice who did not consume the compound, according to the study.

    This study adds to a growing body of evidence that resveratrol consumption through red wine has powerful chemoprevention properties, in addition to its apparent heart-health benefits, said lead study author Coral Lamartiniere, Ph.D., of UAB's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.