Wheatgrass: Green Blood can Help to Fight Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and is one of the leading causes of death especially in developing countries like India. It is usually managed with the help of chemotherapeutic agents that are toxic not only to the tumor cells but also to normal cells in many ways. Whereas the traditional herbal medicines which are used from ancient days in India are generally known to be free of toxic effects and are effective. Wheatgrass is the young grass of the wheat plant 'Tritcumaestivum Linn', family Poaceae (Gramineae). It contains a number of vitamins, mineral, amino acids and vital enzymes, these play an important role in the anticancer approach of this herbal product. It is also called as 'green blood' because of its high content of chlorophyll, which bears a structural similarity to haemoglobin and this result in high oxygen supply to all the body tissues.

OBJECTIVE

To analyse the effect of the aqueous wheat grass extract on Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) cell line by MTT assay.

METHODS

'KB cell line' (Mouth Epidermal Carcinoma Cells) was used for the present study. Aqueous extract of wheat grass was prepared in the institution. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the aqueous wheat grass extract on KB cell line(OSCC) by MTT assay.

RESULTS

A 41.4% of OSCC cell inhibition was observed at 1000 µg/ml dilution of aqueous wheatgrass extract in 24 hours.

CONCLUSIONS

The aqueous extract of wheatgrass has an inhibitory effect on the oral cancer cell line proliferation.