Anti-cancer properties found in Kencur ginger in new study

Kencur ginger, also known as "Kaempferia galanga," is a type of ginger plant native to Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. It is a rhizomatous perennial herb belonging to the ginger family. You may know it as an aromatic spice to add flavor to your dishes or as a soothing herbal remedy to use for upset stomachs, but researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have uncovered promising findings that Kencur, possesses anti-cancer effects. Their findings were published in Heliyon.

Led by Associate Professor Akiko Kojima of the Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology, the researchers demonstrated that Kencur extract and its main active component, ethyl p-methoxycinnamate (EMC), significantly suppressed cancer cell growth at the cellular and animal levels.

While previous studies on EMC indicated its anti-cancer potential by decreasing the expression of mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), which is associated with cancer cell proliferation, the exact mechanism remained unclear until now.

Professor Kojima stated, “The results of this study confirm the anti-cancer effects of Kencur extract and its main active ingredient, EMC. It is highly expected that TFAM will become a new marker for anti-cancer effects in the future as research advances in related fields.”

Reference: Kaempferia galanga L. extract and its main component, ethyl p-methoxycinnamate, inhibit the proliferation of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells by suppressing TFAM expression, Heliyon, DOI 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17588