Toshiaki NISHIGAKI^1,2, Kunitaka HIROSE³  and Hidekazu SHIGEMATSU^1,2

1 Department of Histopathology, School of Medicine, Shinshu University  (3-3-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-8621 Japan)
2 Research Association of Tropical Medicinal Plants (1286-18 Yamato, Azusagawa, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-1701 Japan)
3 Effector Cell Institute (4-7-7 Aobadai, Meguro, Tokyo 153-0042 Japan)

Abstract

Pandanus conoideus (Buah Merah) is exclusively grown in Papua island and its neighbor areas and the inhabitants have been utilizing its extract oil (SBM) as functional food for tens thousands years.
We have first found relatively higher quantity of carotenoids which consists of alpha- and beta-carotene as well as alpha- and beta-cryptoxanthin in SBM. beta-cryptoxanthin is a novel micronutrient to associate with reduced risk of some types of cancers.
However, antitumor effect of SBM has not been well examined.
We evaluated antitumor potentials of SBM in the in vitro and in vivo studies.
In the in vitro study, human non-small lung cancer cells, A549 were inhibited on cell proliferation at more than 500 μg/mL of SBM in MTT assay.
The in vivo antitumor activity of SBM was evaluated using mouse Sarcoma180, mouse Lewis lung cancer (LLC) and A549 models.
In any animal model assays, SBM demonstrated significant antitumor effects in either tumor volumes or tumor weights.
From the experiment using nude mice in A549 assay, antitumor effect of SBM may not be associated with immunological involvement.
We conclude that Buah Merah has higher potentials in prevention of cancers, especially lung cancer.