orthosiphon stamineus: an asian tea with substantial anticancer properties

ba ckground: liver cancer is one of the deadly cancers with high prevalence in the east asia. likewise most of diseases, herbs and herbal medicine could be an easy and cost effective tool in prevention and possible cancer treatment. the present study investigated the ability of orthosiphon stamineus benth decoction to protect liver against hepatocellular carcinoma in carcinogenesis-induced animal model. m ethods: forty male sprague dawley rats (age: 8±1 weeks, weight: 248.1±7.21g) were obtained and 10 rats were kept as normal group. hepatocellular carcinoma was  induced  for  the  rest  30  of  rats  by  means  of  intraperitoneal injection  of 200mg/kg diethyl nitrosamine (den) dissolved in corn oil. induced cancer rats were under hepatocarcinogenesis promoter diet made from a mixture of standard rat diet (ain-76) with 2-acetylaminofluorene (0.02% aaf) for two weeks. two weeks after this diet, left over rats were divided to two groups as control and treatment. treatment group, were forced feed daily with 0.7 ml  o. stamineus decoction . results:  after   28   weeks   treatment   with    o.  stamineus   decoction,   serum biochemical  markers  including  alpha  fetoprotein  (afp),  alkaline  phosphatase (alp),   aspartate   aminotransferase  (ast),   alanine   aminotransferase  (alt),corticosteroid  binding  globulin  (cbg),  gamma  glutamyl  transferase  (ggt), homocysteine  (hcy),  tumor  necrosis  factor   alpha  (tnf-α),  and   alpha   2 macroglobulin (α2mg) have been regulated favorably. total antioxidant status (tas) also has been increased drastically. liver lesion score in treated groups were reduced and glucocorticoid activity has been amplified significantly. conclusion: our results indicate that o. stamineus decoction might prevent or subdue liver cancer development.