From the microwave and teflon, to penicillin and viagra, many inventions and discoveries owe themselves to chance or a total accident, and that’s the story of this next breakthrough in the fight against cancer. This story comes to us from Swansea University in the UK where British and Indian scientiests recently discovered that nanoparticles from tea leaves can actually destroy lung cancer cells.

Pexels This is all thanks to incredibly small nanoparticles known as quantum dots that are just 1/4000th the thickness of human hair. Thanks to their small size they are able to penetrate cancer cells and deliver a cytotoxic effect that kills up to 80 percent of the cells. Nanoparticles play an important role in tumor imaging because they have unique flourescent properties when they’re hit by light. The process of producing them, however, is extremely costly, complicate, and can have toxic side effects. So, scientists set out to produce non-toxic nanoparticles and to do that, they used camillia sinensis tea leaf extract. It’s when they tested their bioimaging effectiveness of their new product that they noticed something completely unexpected: the quantum dots were killing the cancer cells!

Swansea University Here’s more from IFLScience: “Our research confirmed previous evidence that tea leaf extract can be a non-toxic alternative to making quantum dots using chemicals,” Dr Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu, lead researcher on the project, explained in a statement. “The real surprise, however, was that the dots actively inhibited the growth of the lung cancer cells. We hadn’t been expecting this.”

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Swansea University It should be emphasized that this doesn’t mean drinking tea will prevent or “cure” lung cancer. As you’ve hopefully gathered, it’s a hell of a lot more complicated than that. It’s also extremely early days for the research. Dr Pitchaimuthu told BBC News that they imagine there could be human trials in two years and, all being well, perhaps a viable treatment in a decade. Nevertheless, this tea-infused research shows that quantum dots could hold some real promise in the field of cancer research and beyond. Indeed, it could! Let’s hope this opens all kinds of new doors to eradicate this disease once and for all.