Vietnamese scientists found anti-cancer compounds prepared from gac seed membranes

Vietnamese scientists have successfully prepared lycopene compounds from gac seed membranes, nano-sized to help the body absorb easily, and have just been granted 2 patents.

Dr. Dang Thi Tuyet Anh and her collaborators Institute of Chemistry, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology from 2018 started researching to extract lycopene from gac seed membranes . Lycopene is a bright red natural pigment found in plants and some other photosynthetic organisms, has strong antioxidant activity, supports cancer prevention. This active ingredient is found in many red vegetables such as tomatoes, papaya, but in gac membranes is 70 times higher.

Gac membrane contains a lot of antioxidant lycopene. (Photo: NNC).

From the dried gac membrane, the research team used organic solvents to create the extract. This extract was concentrated for the purification of lycopene with ethanol solvent. After filtering, washing and drying, the group obtained high purity lycopene powder over 98%. The amount of lycopene extracted is about 3.2-4.4g/kg from the dried gac seed membrane. This compound can keep its quality when stored in foil, vacuum sealed and stored at -16 degrees Celsius.

To make it easier for the body to absorb lycopene, the team sought to make the pure compound into compounds with a particle size of less than 100 nanometers. With the nanometer size introduced into drug preservation, absorption is also more efficient.

During the preparation process, the team found that lycopene is a strong antioxidant compound but also very susceptible to oxidation. Therefore, the preparation and preservation process is carried out in a closed room, adjusting the temperature to avoid the oxidized compound losing its effect. As a result, the nanopowder product obtained has fine, uniform particles, has good dispersion in water and has high durability. "After 03 months of storage at -16 degrees Celsius, the remaining lycopene content in the nanosystem is still high, about 95.6%," said Dr. Tuyet Anh.

Currently, lycopene-containing drugs from Vietnamese and domestically produced medicinal herbs are not available on the market, while imported lycopene products cost several hundred dollars.

The mission has made the process of extracting pure lycopene from gac fruit simple, safe and easy to deploy on an industrial scale. Moreover, the lycopene product is obtained in the form of a fine powder, so it is easy to prepare drugs, and is applied to the pharmaceutical and functional food industries.

Dr. Tuyet Anh said that when extracting on an industrial scale, the reduction in product cost depends on the extraction efficiency and suitable solvent adjustment.

The research team expects that, with the successful extraction of lycopene, users can access Vietnamese pharmaceutical products at lower prices, equal quality, even higher, and the economic value of gac fruit is also improved.