Several international studies have reported that some types of seaweed and their extracts have the ability to affect cancerous diseases.
The most famous study from Brazil, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and its scientists, found polysaccharides from the seagrass Sargassum Vulgare that inhibited some of the tumors of angiogenesis, more precisely the development of tumors caused by the growth of new blood vessels.
These compounds have also been found to inhibit HeLa cell lineage. HeLa cells are a species found in Henrite Lax’s body in 1951.
Researchers also confirmed these results in a study by researchers from Putra University in Malaysia. This study showed that the red moxa grass Eucheuma cottonii and the extract of this morxa grass successfully stop the spread of breast cancer even better than the drug tamoxifen. Scientists did a study on mice. The study also proved that there are no side effects and negative effects on the kidneys and liver, only one of the negative effects of the drug used in tamoxifen chemotherapy.
The anti-carcinogenic effects of seaweed have also been shown to be accurate in human studies. In February, Japanese Red Cross researchers Kyoto Daiichi reported that zeaxanthin, along with other seaweed carotenoids, reduced the chance of cancer in adult Japanese.
Researchers from Kyushu University in Japan had confirmed that when they treated human breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 with fucoids obtained from brown seaweed – the growth of cancer cells is stopped.
Doctors also found another effect of fucoids in this study, and that is their ability to change the membrane of cancer cells and mitochondria, as well as to change the flow of ions through the membrane.
This supports the release of cytochrome CI BD-2 towards the destruction of the cancer cell.
Researchers from the South Korean College of Veterinary Medicine have found that fucoids inhibit the metastasis of A549 colon cancer. A549 cells are one of the most aggressive forms of colon cancer cells. The mechanism seen in this study is that fucoid reduces the MMP-2 activity of cancer cells.
The researchers found that fucoids could be considered a potential therapeutic compound against metastasis and invasion of human colon cancer.
