Successful isolation of cancer treatment supporting compound from galangal

Galangal has scientific nameAlpinia officinarumis a herbaceous plant of the ginger family. In addition to its use as a spice, in Oriental medicine, galangal is used as a medicine with anti-inflammatory properties, helping to disinfect wounds, detoxify, purify the body, act as an antioxidant, prevent brain aging, prevent breast cancer...

In a two-year study (2022-2024), scientists at the Institute of Chemistry, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology isolated and determined the structure of 7 compounds including 2 flavones, 3 flavanones and 2 chalcones, and distilled and determined the chemical composition of the essential oils of Vietnamese galangal leaves and roots. The research team tested the in vitro biological activities of the extracted residues and isolated pure substances including cytotoxic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities.

Scientists have developed a process to create a product on a scale of 1kg of dry ingredients/batch and prepared 58.4g of the product. Testing the product's ability to inhibit tumor growth on a mouse model showed that it inhibited 25.72% of tumor volume at a dose of 500 mg/kg body weight.

The research team established baseline standards for the formulation and evaluated its tumor growth inhibitory effects on tissue.

This is the first time that Vietnamese galangal has been studied for its chemical composition and biological activity, contributing to the effective exploitation of natural medicinal resources for health care. The research was accepted by the council with excellent results.