The scientists found nanoparticles derived from tea leaves can inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells

News24xx.com -  Recently, a team of Indian and British scientists has found that nanoparticles derived from tea leaves can inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells up to 80 per cent. 

Tea leaves contain a wide variety of compounds, including polyphenols, amino acids, vitamins and antioxidants.

Wow, amazing....

The study that published in the journal Applied Nano Materials, outlines a new method of producing a type of nanoparticle called quantum dots. The team including researchers from K S Rangasamy College of Technology and Bharathiar University in Tamil Nadu. 

And they explored a non-toxic plant-based alternative method of producing the dots, using tea leaf extract.

Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu from Swansea University in the UK, who led the study said, "Our research confirmed previous evidence that tea leaf extract can be a non-toxic alternative to making quantum dots using chemicals. Quantum dots can be made chemically, but this is complicated and expensive and has toxic side effects."

The researchers mixed tea leaf extract with cadmium sulphate (CdSO4) and sodium sulphide (Na2S) and allowed a process which causes quantum dots to form.  The CdS quantum dots derived from tea leaf extract showed exceptional fluorescence emission in cancer cell bioimaging compared to conventional CdS nanoparticles.

They then applied the dots to lung cancer cells. The study found that quantum dots produced from tea leaves inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells.

Not only that, the researchers also penetrated into the nanopores of the cancer cells and destroyed up to 80 per cent of them.

"We found that tea leaves are a simpler, cheaper and less toxic method of producing quantum dots, compared with using chemicals,"  Pitchaimuthu said.

Quantum dots are therefore a very promising avenue to explore for developing new cancer treatments.

 

 

 

 

 

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