Vietnamese scientist found anti-cancer agent from spinach

New research of Vietnamese science has found precious compounds from amaranth plants that can be toxic to cancer cells.

The rice amaranth has a scientific name of A. lividus L. (A. viridis L.) , which is known for its many effects such as heat, diuretic, bee sting, and pimples. In India, the Philippines, rice amaranth is used to treat diabetes, anemia. Modern studies on biology and pharmacology have shown that rice amaranth has anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and antibacterial effects.

In rice amaranth there are precious compounds against cancer cells.(Photo: HM).

To clarify the chemical and biological activity components, the research team of the Center for Drug Research and Development, Institute of Marine Biochemistry, under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology has conducted research and distribution. set up natural compounds in rice amaranth plants in Vietnam.

In two years of research, from wild rice amaranth samples, scientists have identified fatty acid components including saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids as well as isolated compounds.

Of the seven compounds that were isolated, the team discovered rare 3,4-seco-olean-12-en-4-ol-3,28-dioic acid (AVE7) compounds . AVE7 compounds exhibit cytotoxic activity on four KB cancer cell lines, HepG2, SK-LU-1 and MCF7 with IC50 from 32.03 to 43.45 μg / ml.

Dr Le Nguyen Thanh, a member of the research team, said that the group now uses the active ingredient extracted from amaranth to poison the cancer cells. For practical testing as well as identifying toxic mechanisms will need more research. In particular, it is difficult to extract the active ingredients that are toxic to cancer cells in large amounts because amaranth leaves contain many chlorophyll and substances.

However, the experts evaluated the results of this study, contributing to supplementing data on chemical composition as well as biological activity of rice amaranth in Vietnam. From here Vietnam can guide further studies on the biological activity of rice amaranth - a lot of green vegetables in the wild.