The Chaga mushroom (Inonotus obliquus) has been used in folk medicine to treat cancers. However, limited information exists on the underlying anticancer effects of the major component of I. obliquus in vivo. We hypothesize that the pure compounds (3β-hydroxy-lanosta-8,24-dien-21-al, inotodiol and lanosterol, respectively) separated from I. obliquus would inhibit tumor growth in Balbc/c mice bearing Sarcoma-180 cells (S-180) in vivo and growth of human carcinoma cells in vitro. To test this hypothesis, the growth inhibition of each subfraction isolated from I. obliquus on human carcinoma cell lines (lung carcinoma A-549 cells, stomach adenocarcinoma AGS cells, breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells, and cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells) was tested in vitro. Then, after S-180 implantation, the mice were fed a normal chow supplemented with 0, 0.1 or 0.2 mg of subfraction 1, 2 or 3 per mouse per day. All of the subfractions isolated from I. obliquus showed significant cytotoxic activity against the selected cancer cell lines in vitro. Subfraction 1 was more active than subfraction 2 and subfraction 3 against the A549, AGS and MCF-7 cancer cell lines in vitro. In in vivo results, subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus at concentrations of 0.1 and 0.2 mg/mouse per day significantly decreased tumor volume by 23.96% and 33.71%, respectively, as compared with the control. Subfractions 2 and 3 also significantly inhibited tumor growth in mice bearing S-180 as compared with the control mouse tumor. Subfraction 1 isolated from I. obliquus showed greater inhibition of tumor growth than subfractions 2 and 3, which agrees well with the in vitro results. The results suggest that I. obliquus and its compounds in these subfractions isolated from I. obliquus could be used as natural anticancer ingredients in the food and/or pharmaceutical industry.
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) hull was extracted with 70% ethanol and then further fractionated with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and water stepwise. In the in vitro test (SRB assay), hexane and ethyl acetate fractions showed higher inhibition effects against MCF-7 cells than other samples at the 1 mg/mL level: 89% and 93.2%, respectively. They also displayed higher inhibition rates against Hep3B cells of 83.6% and 75.3%, respectively, at 1 mg/mL. The ethyl acetate fraction yielded the highest inhibition rate against A549 cells with the level of 0.25 mg/mL, but it showed a lower inhibition rate than the hexane and chloroform fractions at higher levels of sample, i.e., 0.75 and 1.0 mg/mL. All samples showed higher inhibition effects against AGS human gastric carcinoma than any other cancer cells. The inhibition rates against HeLa cells were 81.2% and 82.0% for the chloroform and butanol fraction with 0.5 mg/mL, respectively. However, all samples yielded an inhibition rate of less than 35% against normal cells, at all treatment levels, except the ethanol extract. All extracts at doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg showed decreases of more than 20% and 42%, respectively, in tumor formation in sarcoma-180 implanted mice except for the aqueous fraction. From these results, it is suggested that buckwheat hull possesses anticancer properties against a variety of different cancer cell lines.
Corni fructus has been used as a tonic, analgesic, and diuretic in Korean herbal medicine. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the antioxidative effect of corni fructus and its capacity to protect cells against oxidative damage. The radical scavenging activity of corni fructus extracts was measured using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), and the antioxidant activity was determined by measuring the peroxide value in a linoleic acid emulsion system. In addition, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with corni fructus extracts and incubated with H(2)O(2) to investigate protection against apoptosis induction. Both ethanol and water extracts of corni fructus produced higher DPPH radical scavenging activity than hexane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate extracts. Strong antioxidative activities of both water and ethanol extracts were observed in an emulsion system containing linoleic acid and phosphate buffer. The incubation of HUVECs with the addition of ethanol extract significantly decreased H(2)O(2)-initiated damage of endothelial cells, but the water extract did not. The pretreatment with ethanol extract, but not with water extract, significantly decreased apoptotic damage of the H(2)O(2)-treated HUVECs and kept the morphological normality. This study demonstrates that corni fructus is a potent antioxidant substance, and suggests that further investigation is needed to characterize the difference between extract types and to identify its antioxidant compounds.
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