Anticancer effect of Magnolia officinalis' extract on N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine induced bladder cancer in mice

Abstract

Purpose: Magnolia officinalis has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of diseases. The main constituents of Magnolia officinalis are honokiol and magnolol, which have a variety of pharmacological effects, such as antitumor, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory etc. This study examined the anticancer effect of a Magnolia officinalis' extract on urinary bladder cancer in vivo. Materials and Methods: Male mice C3H/He were used as the experimental animals. The mice were divided into ten groups. Normal drinking water was provided to group 1 (5 mice) for 20 weeks and 0.05% N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN) was added to in the drinking water of group 2 (5 mice). 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0% Magnolia officinalis' extract was added to groups 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively (5 mice each), and 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0% Magnolia officinalis' extract plus 0.05% BBN was added to groups 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively (10 mice each) for the same period. All surviving mice were sacrificed at week 20 to investigate the occurrence of bladder cancer, stage and grade. Results: Bladder cancer was not observed in groups 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mice. The rates of bladder cancer occurrence were 57.1, 66.7, 44.4 and 20.0% in groups 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively. The incidence decreased with increasing concentration of Magnolia officinalis (p=0.005). However, the stage and grade were not associated with the concentration of Magnolia officinalis (each p > 0.05). Conclusions: This study showed that Magnolia officinalis has some protective effect against bladder cancer. In the future, Magnolia officinalis may be expected to play an important role as a chemo-preventive and therapeutic agent or as a complementary agent in bladder cancer.