Used for hundreds of years by traditional Korean medicine, red ginseng would be able to fight against lung cancer metastases.
Used in traditional Chinese and Korean medicine for thousands of years, red ginseng is a traditional medicinal plant believed to have many benefits, including improved physical performance and mental focus.
Use of microwaves
In a study published in the Journal of Ginseng Research, researchers from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) explain that they have discovered that two of its active components, Rk1 and Rg5, have proven anti-cancer effects against lung cancer metastasis. They were revealed thanks to the development of a new method of processing red ginseng using microwaves. Based on the same principle as that used by a microwave oven, this technique called KMxG increases the concentration of the three main active components of the root, Rg3, Rk1 and Rg5, by more than twenty times.
Unlike normal cells, which die when separated from their original tissue, cancer cells can spread to other tissues where they invade and grow: these are called metastases. TGF-β1, a cytokine protein that functions as a signaling substance in the body, induces lung cancer metastasis and promotes the development of stem cell-like properties in cancer cells.
Future cancer drug development
As part of their work, the researchers treated lung cancer cells with Rk1 and Rg5, the main components of red ginseng concentrated using the KMxG method. The results showed that they effectively inhibited various processes related to TGF-β1-induced cancer metastasis.
“Although components of red ginseng have been previously shown to kill cancer cells, this study has proven that these components of red ginseng have other anti-cancer effects and can inhibit lung cancer metastasis, explains Dr. Jungyeob Ham, co-author of the study. This provides scientific evidence that could lead to the future development of cancer drugs derived from natural products.”
According to him, it may be possible to “to develop personalized functional materials for various diseases”because it is possible to “controlling the active ingredient content of red ginseng using microwave processing methods like the one that produced KMxG”.
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