AN ARAB TREE THAT ‘CAN FIGHT CANCER’
▶ Research shows that extracts of the plant grown in the Middle East have anti-cancer properties
The tree Rhus coriaria, which grows in parts of the Arab world, has long proved useful to people in this region. Its oil can be turned into candles, its pigments are used as dyes and its fruit is crushed to provide spices.
But UAE research has now shown that extracts of the plant have strong anti-cancer properties.
In a new study in the journal
Scientific Reports, Dr Rabah Iratni, an associate professor at UAE University in Al Ain, and co-researchers have found that these extracts can kill colon cancer cells.
The researchers say that the extracts “significantly inhibited the viability and colony growth of colon cancer cells”. The extracts also induced processes called autophagy and apoptosis, which both involve cell death.
The researchers concluded that R coriaria extracts were “a potential and valuable source of novel therapeutic anti-cancer drug”.
Colon cancer is the fourth-largest cause of cancer deaths worldwide and each year about 50,000 people lose their lives to it in the US.
As reported in The National in 2016, Dr Iratni’s research group has previously found that R coriaria extracts can kill breast cancer cells.
Treatments from the use of these plant extracts are probably years away at least but the findings offer promise for the future.
Given the findings with breast cancer cells, Dr Iratni said the results with colon cancer cells “did not come as a surprise.”
“I really expected it would have such an effect with colon cancer,” he said.
“Right now we’re working with lung and prostate cancer as well.”
The researchers hope to identify the compounds in R coriaria, which is also known as sumac, that kill the colon cancer cells.
“The next step is to see which fraction is mediating this effect,” Dr Iratni said.
Dr Justine Alford, a seniro science content officer at Cancer Research UK, said the findings were interesting but warned that “a lot more research lies ahead before the approach could be tested in people”.
“Most importantly, the researchers haven’t shown that eating the spice has any effect against cancer,” Dr Alford said.
“Some important cancer drugs we use today have come from plants, such as the chemotherapy paclitaxel.
“So it’s possible that early research like this could lead scientists towards other effective treatments in the future.”
Dr Iratni and his colleagues have also discovered anti-cancer effects from other plant extracts.
About five years ago they published findings showing that extracts of the herb marjoram can kill breast cancer cells in the laboratory.
Such research raises the question of why plants produce chemicals capable of killing cancer cells.
Many of the substances are secondary metabolites, meaning that they are not required for the plant’s growth, development and reproduction, but may be crucial for its survival by, for example, deterring herbivores.