Garcinia demonstrates potential anticancer activity

According to a study published in the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines, dry resin called garcinia may have anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. For the study, researchers from Zhongda Hospital at the School of Medicine of Southeast University in China, studied the anticancer activity of resin obtained from Garcinia hanburyi (gamboge).

• Garcinia is a kind of dry resin secreted by Garcinia hanburyi.
• The resin is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine because it is said to possess various biological functions like anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification activities.
• Other studies have determined that garcinia has potential anticancer activity, and there is a growing body of evidence which shows that the main active monomer gambogic acid isolated from garcinia can help inhibit the growth of various cancer cells.
• For the study, the researchers summarized the scientific advances made in the investigation of the anti-tumor effect of neogambogic acid for the last few years.
• The researchers conducted various tests on neogambogic acid, an isolated compound that has a similar chemical structure as gambogic acid.
• The researchers noted that based on data from preliminary studies, neogambogic acid could selectively inhibit the growth of various cancer cells. They added that the compound also had lower toxicity than gambogic acid.

The team of researchers concluded that neogambogic acid could potentially be used to develop natural and effective cures that can help curb the proliferation of cancer cells.

You can read more articles about scientific discoveries concerning other natural anticancer remedies at Cancer.news.

Journal Reference: 

Sun R, Zhang H-M, Chen B-A. ANTICANCER ACTIVITY AND UNDERLYING MECHANISM OF NEOGAMBOGIC ACID. Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines. 2018;16(9):641–643. DOI: 10.1016/s1875-5364(18)30103-1