芙蓉玫瑰提取物有助于对抗乳腺癌 Hibiscus rosa-sinesis extract helps fight breast cancer

Hibiscus rosa-sinesis extract helps fight breast cancer
Nov. 17, 2019 Sunday (JKZX.com) —  Canadian researchers published a study recently in BMC Contemporary and Alternative Medicine to suggest that hibiscus flower extracts can be used to treat breast cancer at least as an adjuvant.

Conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiotherapy are very toxic and are known to develop drug resistance in cancer patients, which leads to the recurrence of more aggressive cancers and eventually kill cancer patients. For that reason, non-toxic alternative cancer treatments are highly desired.

Previous studies have revealed that hibiscus extracts or Hibiscus rosa-sinesis (hibiscus) extract have anticancer properties due to antioxidant and hypolipidemic effects, according to the study report. The current study was intended to investigate the anticancer effect of this extract on breast cancer cells.

The researchers tested the extract in triple-negative and estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer cell cultures and also healthy cells to examine its efficacy against cancer cells and its toxicity against healthy cells.

They found that aqueous hibiscus flower extracts induce apoptosis in both breast cancer cell cultures om a dose dependent manner while showing no toxicity in the health cells.

When used along with chemotherapies like taxol and cisplatin in triple-negative breast cancer cells, this extract was found to boost the induction of apoptosis in breast cancer cell cultures. Because of this, the dose of chemotherapy drugs can be reduced and patients could be more tolerant to the treatments.