Soluble Extract from Moringa oleifera Leaves with a New Anticancer Activity

Abstract

Moringa oleifera has been regarded as a food substance since ancient times and has also been used as a treatment for many diseases. Recently, various therapeutic effects of M. oleifera such as antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and antioxidant effects have been investigated; however, most of these studies described only simple biological phenomena and their chemical compositions. Due to the increasing attention on natural products, such as those from plants, and the advantages of oral administration of anticancer drugs, soluble extracts from M. oleifera leaves (MOL) have been prepared and their potential as new anticancer drug candidates has been assessed in this study. Here, the soluble cold Distilled Water extract (4°C; concentration, 300 µg/mL) from MOL greatly induced apoptosis, inhibited tumor cell growth, and lowered the level of internal reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human lung cancer cells as well as other several types of cancer cells, suggesting that the treatment of cancer cells with MOL significantly reduced cancer cell proliferation and invasion. Moreover, over 90% of the genes tested were unexpectedly downregulated more than 2-fold, while just below 1% of the genes were upregulated more than 2-fold in MOL extract-treated cells, when compared with nontreated cells. Since severe dose-dependent rRNA degradation was observed, the abnormal downregulation of numerous genes was considered to be attributable to abnormal RNA formation caused by treatment with MOL extracts. Additionally, the MOL extract showed greater cytotoxicity for tumor cells than for normal cells, strongly suggesting that it could potentially be an ideal anticancer therapeutic candidate specific to cancer cells. These results suggest the potential therapeutic implications of the soluble extract from MOL in the treatment of various types of cancers.

A potential oral anticancer drug candidate, Moringa oleifera leaf extract, induces the apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells

“…The flowers, roots, leaves and bark of M. oleifera have long been used by the public as nutritional supplements and foods, as well as in the manufacture of perfume, skin oil and other products (12,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19). Certain parts of M. oleifera (leaf, stem and root) have been demonstrated to produce various biological activities, including antiatherosclerotic (20), immune-boosting (21), anticardiovascular disease (22), antiviral (1,(23)(24)(25), antioxidant (2,(26)(27)(28), antimicrobial (27), anti-inflammatory (29) and tumor-suppressive effects (30). Due to its long history of usage and various biological effects, M. oleifera has long been the subject of research interest.…”

“…Due to its long history of usage and various biological effects, M. oleifera has long been the subject of research interest. A previous study reported on the therapeutic potential of the water-soluble extract from M. oleifera leaves (MOL) in the treatment of various types of cancers, including lung, breast and skin cancers (30).…”

“…This solvent extraction technique has also been used to extract useful compounds from M. oleifera by a number of research groups; however, they have not reported on the effects of the water-soluble extract of M. oleifera. In our previous study, the effectiveness of a cold water (4˚C)-soluble extract of MOL in lung cancer prevention was reported (30).…”

Antiproliferative and Apoptosis Inducing Effects of Non-Polar Fractions from Lawsonia inermis L. in Cervical (HeLa) Cancer Cells

“…Pratumvinit et al (2009) investigated Ficus hispida L.extract for colony formation inhibition in T47D breast cancer cell line and found that extract treatment showed reduction in number of colonies. Leaves of Moringa oleifera significantly inhibited colonogenecity in A549 cells in dose dependent manner (Jung 2014).…”

Study on Processing Technology and Quality of Moringa oleifera leaves with y - Aminobutyric Acid

“…Studies have shown that Moringa leaves are rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and essential amino acids, and having antioxidant activity of vitamin C, flavonoids and polyphenols substances [3] . Moringa has antioxidant, anti-cancer, hypoglycemic and lipid-lowering and other biological activities [4][5][6][7] .…”