A recent study revealed that ginger contains a compound that could be 10,000 times more successful than conventional chemotherapy. The active ingredient in ginger can also remove cancer cells without attacking normal and healthy cells.
According to the study published by PLos, an active ingredient found in ginger known as 6-shogoal attacks cancer stem cells during its early stages. The component was also found to be the root cause of breast cancer malignancy.
Cancer stem cells are responsible for the root of a wide range of cancers as they grow and divide to produce a cluster of daughter cells that give rise to the tumor. While cancer stem cells make up of only 0.2 to 1% of the tumor, its ability to self-renew and capability of differentiation makes it seem to be immortal.
Cancer stem cells are also migratory and invasive in nature allowing it to create new tumor mass to give rise to a secondary tumor. Studies then show that these cancer stem cells should be destroyed if cancer treatment is to have a lasting cure.
In the study, scientists extracted a potent compound from the ginger root known as 6-shogoal, which showed powerful activity against cancer stem cells, according to Natural News. The anti-cancer stem cell activity is produced by ginger when the root is either dried or cooked.
Similar to many natural anti-cancer agents, 6-shogoal kills cancer cells without attacking healthy cells. This makes 6-shogoal very different from conventional cancer treatment by not displaying the kind of selective cytotoxicity that harms patients.
In addition, astounding differences were made when 6-shogoal was compared to the chemotherapeutic agent 'taxol' in terms of potency. Taxol acts by attacking only the surface layer of the tumor leaving the spheroid model unaffected which is where the actual configuration of the tumor is located.
6-shogoal, on the other hand, is not only active against spheroid models but also in monolayer cells even when the concentration of taxol was increased by four orders of magnitude, according to Green Med Info. The active cell agent in ginger was then declared by the researchers as 10,000 times more effective than chemotherapy.
"Dietary compounds are potential treatment options for various diseases due to their tolerability and efficacy in human bodies," according to the author of the research. Now, the study can work as an inspiration for researchers to find natural occurrences as future treatment options.
