October 29, 2003 – The main active ingredient in ginger appears to be able to slow the growth of certain tumors.
American researchers tested the effect of the substance, called 6-gingerole, on mice without an immune system injected with human colorectal cancer cells. The researchers added, three times a week, 0.5 mg of 6-gingerole to the diet of 20 mice, both before and after the injection of cancer cells, but not to that of the mice to serve as a control group.
After 15 days, tumors had developed in 13 mice in the control group, but only in four of the group that received the ginger extract. After day 49, all of the mice in the control group had to be euthanized due to the size of their tumor, but twelve from the other group were still alive. The tumors of the latter were also about 50% smaller than those of the others.
Preliminary results from this study, which was presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, also suggested that the cancer suffered by mice in the control group was more aggressive and more invasive.
At the same congress, other researchers presented the results obtained with the Chinese herb Ban Zhi Lian (Scutellaria barbata) on mice injected with human prostate cancer cells. After 27 weeks, 70% of mice given the highest dose of Ban Zhi Lian (16 mg per day) had no cancer, compared to only 30% of mice in the control group.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
From eurekalert.org; October 28, 2003.
