title: Components in aqueousHibiscus rosa-sinensisflower extract inhibitin vitromelanoma cell growth.
abstract: Skin cancer is extremely common, and melanoma causes about 80% of skin cancer deaths. In fact, melanoma kills over 50 thousand people around the world each year, and these numbers are rising. Clearly, standard treatments are not effectively treating melanoma, and alternative therapies are needed to address this problem. Hibiscus tea has been noted to have medicinal properties, including anticancer effects. Extracts from Hibiscus have been shown to inhibit the growth of a variety of cancer cells. In particular, recent studies found that polyphenols extracted fromHibiscus sabdariffaby organic solvents can inhibit melanoma cell growth. However, effects of aqueous extracts fromHibiscus rosa-sinesisflowers, which are commonly used to make traditional medicinal beverages, have not been examined on melanoma cells. Here, we report that aqueousH. rosa-sinesisflower extract contains compounds that inhibit melanoma cell growth in a dose dependent manner at concentrations that did not affect the growth of nontransformed cells. In addition, these extracts contain low molecular weight growth inhibitory compounds below 3 kD in size that combine with larger compounds to more effectively inhibit melanoma cell growth. Future work should identify these compounds, and evaluate their potential to prevent and treat melanoma and other cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA.
authors.forename: Karina H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Science Center, 2 Medical Center Drive, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA.
authors.forename: Ariel C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Science Center, 2 Medical Center Drive, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA.
authors.forename: Archana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mupparapu
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Science Center, 2 Medical Center Drive, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA.
authors.forename: Edward P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Retzbach
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine, Science Center, 2 Medical Center Drive, Stratford, NJ 08084, USA.
authors.forename: Gary S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ 08028, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: Cancer; Cell growth; Hibiscus; Melanoma; Tea