Successfully extracted anti-cancer compounds in milkweed

A group of precious compounds including phenolics and flavoinoids in milkweed plants that grow a lot in the wild were successfully discovered and extracted by MSc Ngan et al.

Milkweed grows wild in the wild, widely distributed in the southern plains, often used by people to treat wounds, eye pain, cough, asthma. Aside from its long-known antibacterial properties, no new properties or pharmaceuticals have been developed from this popular plant so far.

Realizing that there is a lot of potential, from 2018, MSc Tran Kim Ngan (33 years old, Faculty of Biotechnology, International University, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) and his colleagues learned about new properties of milkweed. After two years, the team discovered the antioxidant and cancer-inhibiting compounds of this species, the potential to make natural antibacterial drugs and functional foods to support the treatment of liver and lung cancer.

Milkweed grows a lot in the southern plains, has a popular effect on treating wounds. (Photo: Research team)

To find potential compounds in milkweed, the team performed organic solvent extraction and liquid-liquid extraction techniques. Ngan said that these two methods are commonly used to extract compounds, with the advantage of high content of recovered compounds and especially easy to replicate the model at pilot scale in pharmaceutical production.

Milk grass after picking, is treated (washed, dried, pureed), then the powder is soaked in methanol for 24 hours and filtered to get the solution. From there, organic solvents were used by the team to separate natural compounds in milkweed, including methanol, petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol. These solvents are highly polar, allowing easy recovery of low concentrations of compounds.

According to MSc Ngan, for effective extraction concentration and efficiency, the choice of solvent ratio is the most important factor, because the higher the solvent ratio, the lower the concentration of recovered compounds, which is costly. and difficult to refine later. After many experimental mixing formulas, the research team chose the optimal ratio, ensuring a stable compound structure, not being destroyed by temperature and pH when separating.

After synthesizing the extracts, MSc Ngan and colleagues found two precious compounds including phenolic and flavoinoids, containing high concentrations up to 100 μg/mL. Through analysis, phenolic has the ability to reduce a type of free radical DPPH, causing oxidation, inhibiting the reaction that damages cells.

In particular, at a concentration of 100 μg/mL, flavonoid compounds in milkweed can completely inhibit the growth of two cell lines of lung cancer NCI-H460 and liver cancer Hep G2. In addition, resistant to some gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria such as Bacilluss subtilis (intestinal bacteria), S. aureus (bacteria that cause skin infections), P. aeruginos (bacteria that cause pneumonia).

MSc Ngan said that there are still many compounds with potential biomedical applications in milkweed. Therefore, from this result, the team continued to isolate new extracts with high biological activity. Especially in anti-cancer compounds, the team will do controlled trials, comparing with compounds with the same function in other medicinal species.

"The final research step of the research team is to make natural antibacterial drugs , functional foods to support cancer treatment from this plant," said MSc Ngan and said that this year, the group will coordinate with the Faculty of Medicine, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City to develop a process for preparing highly bioactive compounds, then testing for toxicity (for cells) and for clinical potential in mice, then developing into a drug.