Study results from Y.H. Cheah et al provide new insights into breast cancer.

"Xanthorrhizol is a natural sesquiterpenoid compound isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma xanthorrhizza Roxb (Zingerberaceae). Recent studies of xanthorrhizol in cell cultures strongly support the role of xanthorrhizol as an antiproliferative agent," scientists in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia report (see also Breast Cancer).

"In our study, we rested the antiproliferative effect of xanthorrhizol using different breast cancer cell lines. The invasive breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231, was then selected for further investigations. Treatment with xanthorrhizol caused 50% growth inhibition on MDA-MB-231 cells at 8.67 +/- 0.79 mu g/ml as determined by sulforhodamine B (SRB) …