Anti-tumor activities of bamboo salt on sarcoma 180 tumor-bearing BALB/c mice

Bamboo salt is a traditional Korean baked solar salt, processed by packing the solar salt (sea salt) in bamboo tubes and heating several times at high temperatures. The anti-tumor activity of bamboo salt was investigated and compared to those of other salt’s samples. Though solar salt and purified salt exhibited high tumor weight, bamboo salt is associated with a lower weight of tumor. Bamboo salt baked nine times (9X) showed greater increased in anti-tumor activity than salts baked once (1X) or three times (3X). The growth rate, of 9X baked bamboo salt in treatin mice Splenocytes was determined by a MTT Assay. This rate of proliferation was higher than that achieved with 1X baked bamboo salt by FBS, LPS or Con A. Purified and solar salts had relatively the lowest growth rate proliferation effects. Compared to the other salt samples, 9X bamboo salt significantly (p<0.05) reduced ALS, AST and BUN levels. The bamboo salts, especially 9X bamboo salt, also significantly (p<0.05) increased the cytokine levels of TNF-α and IL-1β compared to the other salt samples.