Effect of Garlic, Chinese Medicinal Drugs and Amino Acids on Growth of Erlich Ascites Tumor Cells in Mice

Abstract

A number of food materials or drugs have been screened for the effect on the growth and development of transplantable Ehrlich ascites tumor cells. Growth of tumor-bearing mice was significantly inhibited by feeding garlic as well as some amino acids. These materials significantly reduced the total number of free tumor cells growing in the peritoneal cavity of mice and prolonged significantly the length of time for 50% death of tumor-bearing mice.

Effect of <i>L-</i>and D-Lysine on the Growth of Ehrlich Ascites Tumour

“…L-lysine exhibited a significant inhibi tory effect on the growth of Ehrlich ascites tumour by 20% when given as an oral feeding of 50 mg/day, as reported previ ously [Choy et al, 1983], while in the pres ent study we could not observe the sup pressive effect of D-lysine. The results of in vitro studies are reported in figure 1.…”

“…Recently, L-histidine has been shown to suppress Ehrlich ascites tumour cell growth both in vivo [Choy et al, 1983] and in vitro [Choy et al, 1986], L-lysine shows the same effect as L-histidine on tu mour growth in vivo and in vitro, while Dlysine has no effect ( fig. 1), indicating that the /.-configuration is essential.…”

“…For example, arginine was found to have growth-inhibiting effects on UCLA fibrosarcoma [Levy et al, 1954], mam mary tumour in rats [Takeda et al, 1975] and also on sarcoma-180 [Kojina et al, 1973], myeloma tumour [Pryme, 1976] and Ehrlich ascites tumour in mice [Pryme, 1978;Milner and Stepanovich, 1978]. Re cently, L-histidine was found to inhibit the growth of Ehrlich ascites tumour in mice either in vivo [Choy et al, 1983] or in vitro [Choy et al, 1986]. The mechanism re 1 Supported in part by World Health Foundation (H.K.).…”

Antitumor-Promoting Activity of Garlic Extracts

“…Antiseptic and antithrom botic activities have been well documented, and reduc tion of serum cholesterol and retarding hyperglycemia attributed to garlic have also been reported [1, 3,4,6,12]. Recently, tumor-inhibitory effects of garlic were demonstrated in various experimental systems: (1) an aqueous extract of garlic was shown to inhibit growth of Morris hepatomas [5]; (2) the phorbol-esterpromoted skin tumor formation was demonstrated to be inhibited by topical application of garlic oil [2], and (3) diallyl sulfide, a thioether in garlic, was reported to inhibit dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer [13].…”

<i>L</i>-Histidine Inhibits the Growth of Ehrlich Ascites Tumour

“…In in vivo studies, the growth of Ehrlich as cites tumour cells in mice was significantly inhibited by feeding the animals with Lhistidine dissolved in drinking water [Choy et al, 1983]. This amino acid re duced the total number of free tumour cells growing in the peritoneal cavity and prolonged the length of time for 50% death of tumour-bearing mice [Choy et al, 1983]. In order to understand more about the antitumour effect of this amino acid, the present experiments were undertaken to study the effect of this amino acid on the growth of Ehrlich ascites tumour in vitro.…”