The female doctor found the cancer treatment from Quang Tri forest tree

Knowing that the purple bald tree works to cure many diseases, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Thi Hoai sought to study the chemical composition of the plant.

Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Hoai , Head of the Pharmacy Department, University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Hue University) knows the accidental compensated plants . She said, from the past, she had heard stories of healers and ethnic women who had remedies to cure many diseases. To test, she went back to the village, collecting samples of research plants. Only scientific evidence is convincing enough about the effect of this medicinal plant.

In 2012, in the mountainous area of ​​Quang Tri, she selected 30 samples of medicinal plants and took more than a year to do analytical experiments, research and screening samples of plant extracts.

By many methods, so far the team announced that two precious compounds have been isolated in purple compensated plants. They have strong activity, can inhibit the growth and destruction of cancer cells.

Plants compensate purple chestnut distributed in the secondary forests of Vietnam.

Sharing with PV, Associate Professor Hoai said, the research team just stopped at the test level on cancer cells in vitro. To go to the step of making medicine products on the market, there is still a very long way, it will have to go through the steps of toxicity test, done in experimental mice, clinical assessments.

'In vitro studies have yielded very good results, but more work is needed on the body. Must see how the effect of active substances on the body? How is this active substance metabolized in the body? The body is capable of absorbing well, causing toxicity . ' said Associate Professor Hoai and said that there is currently no funding for the deployment of these studies.

She explained, usually state funding for research topics will be this year for this topic, next year for another topic. Therefore it is difficult to research the commercial products. However, she still wishes to receive investment to find valuable medicine for people to use cheap.

Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoai.(Photo: Ha Phuong).

Appreciate the significance of this study, the Scientific Research Award for Women L'Oreal - UNESCO for the Development of Women in Science has awarded the Excellent Female Scientist Award in 2017 to Assoc. Nguyen Thi Hoai.

She currently owns 84 research projects published in scientific journals, including 21 works published in specialized international journals. Among these, many studies on medicinal plants have the effect of preventing, inhibiting cancer cells, oxidizing.

The purple bald tree has the scientific name Uvaria grandiflora Roxb. ex Hornem, of the family Annonaceae.

By combining chromatographic methods, two tritecpen saponins are ardisiacrispin B (1) and sakurasosaponin (2), isolated from the n-butanol fraction of the purple hedge plant. The structure of these two saponins was determined by one-way, two-way nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1D, 2D-NMR), electronic dust mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). This is the first time that these two compounds have been isolated from the genus offset (Uvaria), family na (Annonaceae).

Purple bald is woody vines, 8-10 m long, young branches have brownish yellow down. Young leaves are yellow, old and brown and have olive color when dry.

Plants with flowers often grow alone, flower stalks are 1-2cm long, have 2 large leaves. Flowering plants in June 4-6, have fruits every August and September. Purple bald grows in secondary forest, at an altitude of less than 300m, naturally distributed in many places such as Thanh Hoa, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai.

In addition, trees are distributed in India, Myanmar, China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.