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Amla Versus Cancer Cell Growth

Indian gooseberries (amla), an important plant in Ayurvedic medicine, may have anti-cancer properties, as well as cough-, fever-, pain-, stress-, and diarrhea-suppressing effects.

January 12, 2012 |
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Supplementary Info

Amla Versus Cancer Cell Growth, 5.0 out of 5 based on 5 ratings

Sources Cited

Carlsen MH, Halvorsen BL, Holte K, Bøhn SK, Dragland S, Sampson L, Willey C, Senoo H, Umezono Y, Sanada C, Barikmo I, Berhe N, Willett WC, Phillips KM, Jacobs DR Jr, Blomhoff R. The total antioxidant content of more than 3100 foods, beverages, spices, herbs and supplements used worldwide. Nutr J. 2010 Jan 22;9:3.

Baliga MS, Dsouza JJ. Amla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn), a wonder berry in the treatment and prevention of cancer. Eur J Cancer Prev. 2011 May;20(3):225-39.

Ngamkitidechakul C, Jaijoy K, Hansakul P, Soonthornchareonnon N, Sireeratawong S. Antitumour effects of Phyllanthus emblica L.: induction of cancer cell apoptosis and inhibition of in vivo tumour promotion and in vitro invasion of human cancer cells. Phytother Res. 2010 Sep;24(9):1405-13.

Acknowledgements

Images thanks to Luc Viatour/www.Lucnix.be via Wikimedia Commons, Alexandre Rucker and FloraRS, Sam Renkema, Rolando Pérez, Sorin Vaimiti, and David Tng.

Transcript

Indian gooseberries, not to be confused with Barbados gooseberries, Cape gooseberries, Chinese gooseberries, otherwise known as kiwi fruit, Jamaican gooseberries, Tahitian or star gooseberries. The true Indian gooseberry, also known as amla, is considered a wonder berry in the treatment and prevention of cancer, according to review published this year in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention.

Arguably the most important medicinal plant in Ayervedic medicine, and also used in traditional Chinese and Thai medicine, preclinical studies have evidently shown that amla possesses anti-fever properties, anti-pain, anti-cough, anti-artery clogging, anti-stress, heart protective, stomach protective, anti-anemia, anti-cholesterol, wound healing, anti-diarrheal, anti-artery-clogging—didn’t they already say that? As well as protecting the liver, kidneys and nerves. It can also evidently be used for snake venom neutralizer as well, as a hair tonic. It’s like the kitchen sink of berry medicine.

Starting ten years ago, studies started coming out showing that amla extracts kill cancer cells in a petri dish. But lots of things kill cancer cells. You could pee in the test tube and kill cancer cells. What you want is something that kills cancer cells but leaves normal cells alone, and it wasn’t until recently that this was demonstrated with alma.

They tested amla against six human cancer cell lines: lung cancer, liver cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer , ovarian cancer, and colon cancer. This is a graph of cell growth at different amla concentrations. Here’s human breast, liver, and lung cancer cells starting out powering away at 100% growth. As you drip more amla on, the cancer cell growth rates cut in half and then stopped completely, and then amla starts killing the cancer off—the growth goes negative. By the end more than half the cancer cells dead.

Here’s cervical, ovarian and colorectal. All just decimated by Indian gooseberries. And here’s the normal cell line— the non- cancerous, At the highest amla levels, that which killed off more than three quarters of the cancer cells, normal cells just seem to get their growth rates slowed down a bit.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by MaryAnn Allison.

To help out on the site please email <a
href= “mailto:volunteer@nutritionfacts.org” >volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check back for the other videos on amla and don't miss all the videos on cancer. And there are 1,449 subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them!

For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Stool Size and Breast Cancer Risk, Amla: Indian gooseberries vs. cancer, diabetes, and cholesterol, and Top 10 Most Popular Videos of the Year.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check back for the other videos on amla and don’t miss all the videos on cancer. And there are 1,449 subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them!

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1151983040 facebook-1151983040

      Dr.Greger, I respect your work very much, but I got to this link by clicking on a FB post that claimed these berries cure cancer and doctors don’t want people to know about it. I see that you clarified that the results of the study were most likely not attainable in the body (I think that’s the upshot of what you said) and that even in the study, their ability to reduce cancer cells was only 25%. Obviously these berries do not cure cancer, though at some point, a cancer treatment may be found that utilizes them in some way. Please be careful not to feed the anti-evidence based medicine inclinations of some of the people who frequent your site. Those people don’t look at clarifications. They take the slightest suggestion and run with it. People with cancer need to follow the advice of a competent physician, not the internet.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/elvin/ Elvin

    Sound quality has been bad past few days.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

    I wanna git me sum! :-)

    It seems like these berries would be great to put on my morning oatmeal rather than those raisins (“wonderbread of the fruits”-ha! I’ll never forget that) But where to get them? I tried a quick search on Amazon where I found plenty of Alma pills, powders and beauty products, but no actual berries.

    I did find something that proposed to be an Alma juice blend, but they didn’t list the ingredients and it wasn’t organic.

    I’d be curious to hear from people who have tried these berries. What do they taste like? Are they bitter?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

      The amla berry is widely consumed throughout India. I think you should be able to get them from most Indian grocery stores and find recipes online.

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

        re: location of amla berry.
        Thanks. I live in a small enough city that we don’t have an Indian grocery store. I’ll look for one the next time I travel to a bigger city.

    • http://perfectdogtraining.com/ Trainer

      I use a dried amla powder. There’s no other way to describe the taste other than horrid.  Even putting it in a large smoothie couldn’t hide the bitter, vile taste. Regardless, I mix a teaspoon into a half cup of hot water and gulp it down every morning.  I close my eyes and think fond thoughts of my beloved mom forcing me to take my cod liver oil as a small child. I’ve been taking it for about 3 months now and the most noticeable effect is the regrowth of hair in a previously bald spot in my scalp. Cause and effect? I dunno. But I plan to keep taking it.

      • John at 65

        Hair – I bought a bottle of Solaray Amla 500mg and have been taking one
        pill each morning. I have a bald spot on the back of my head 3 inches in
        diameter and it was completely bald. This bald spot has been increasing
        in size over a period of 20 years. After 45 days of taking the Amla I
        notice that hair is growing back there. I was shocked to see the hair
        coming back. I have also changed my diet to Vegan for the past 4 months.
        I
        originally bought the Amla for lowering my blood sugar. With the Vegan
        Diet, Amla, and exercising I have been able to stop using Glipizide for
        my diabetes. A1C was 9.8 and is now 5.3 in just 3 months. My doctor was
        impressed. And
        that was without the Amla. I still take 1,000 mg of Metformin twice a
        day. I listen to my doctor and hope to reduce other medications for
        Cholesterol and high Blood Pressure.

    • Kate

       The best way my husband and I have been using them is by buying them from the freezer section of the Indian grocery store. The powder is generally not good to add to smoothies because it usually contains a significant amount of salt. We buy 12 oz bags of the whole frozen berries for $1.50 each.

      They are fairly large berries (about the size of a plum) and contain a very stubborn pit. I don’t typically thaw and then refreeze things, but I found thawing out the berries and then slicing around the pit and peeling off the slices from the pit is the easiest way to conveniently manage them. I do a whole bag at once, then freeze the rest of the slices to add to my smoothies later. A few slices go a long way. They have a sour taste and we discovered if you eat one by itself, and then drink water afterwards, the water tastes slightly sweet. (:

      Back to smoothies…they do mix well, and can be masked by other fruits. They add a thicker pulpy consistency, but I don’t find it unpleasant, and I’m not typically a huge pulp fan.

      All and all, they are very cheap, and a great addition to your smoothies. Check out the freezer section of your Indian grocery next time you are there! (:

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

    Based on the graph shown, the normal cell growth rate slowed down by more than just “a bit” … the change was by 50%!

    Is that an expected finding for a berry?

    What side effects may exist? Could this reduce capacity to repair wounds or effect skin / blood cell turnover rate?

    Please comment.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

      BPCveg: great question. I hope someone more knowledgeable than I also responds. I just wanted to put in 2 cents.

      You raised some points I hadn’t thought of re: wound repair. However, my initial reaction was that slowing normal cell growth would be great. Since it is my understanding that every time a cell divides, the end caps get smaller, and at some point, they can’t divide any more because of that. Thus, the less that your cells divide, the longer you would live.

      I don’t know if that is true or not. I just think it is interesting that I had the opposite reaction that you did in seeing a lowering of 50% normal cell growth. It looked good to me.

      I will be very interested to hear from someone who understands the big picture better.

      • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/bpcveg/ BPC

        Thea, thanks for your comment.

        You make a good point about slowing aging by affecting telomere length.

        Though I’m not sure if lowering normal cell growth is always beneficial. During chemotherapy, for example, rapidly growing cells are killed off, leading to severe side effects including depression of the immune system, fatigue, tendency to bleed easily, gastrointestinal problems and hair loss.

        I’m not claiming that the slowed growth of cells due to amla is analogous to chemotherapy. I just am looking for a fair evaluation of any potential side effects.

        • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

          BPCveg: Thanks for supplying the ‘telomere’ word.

          Also, thanks for expanding your thoughts. Your thoughts also make perfect sense to me. I hope you get your “fair evaluation”. I want to hear it too.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      Note that the x-axis on that graph is logarithmic–we may not be able to attain levels at the far right hand of the graph physiologically. At the point at which the amla appears to start killing off the cells there appears to just be about a 25% drop in normal cell growth rate. You ask a great question, though. What effect might that have? Stay tuned for more videos coming up over the ensuing weeks for more on amla!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/johnnyamish/ johnnyamish

    I tried the frozen gooseberries and I must say they don’t “jive” with my palate. They took my logarithmic function and made it very untranscendetal — it tastes like poop (math joke). Anyway to make these things tastier?!??

    Thanks!

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

      johnnyamish: Thanks for your taste report.

      On the topic of making them tastier. I’m not sure if you noticed, but this video on amla is just one video in a series. In a later video, Dr. Greger talks about putting some amla powder in a smoothie. It’s my guess that most people will need to do something like that to mask the taste.

      I haven’t been able to try amla myself yet, but my parents (who live in a bigger city and have an Indian store) got some frozen amla. They thawed out one of the fruits. According to my parents, it wasn’t just tart, but also really bitter. Unpalatable to them.

      We’ve talked about getting some amla powder and putting in on oatmeal. Would amla powder in oatmeal ruin breakfast or just add nutrition with no taste change or an exautic pleasant taste? I’m hoping for the latter. Let us know if you find something that works.

      Also, I’ll mention that someone else posted that Indians often prepare the berries cooked with chili(?-something spicy if I remember correctly) and salt. So, it may help to think of the food as less of a fruit and more like a strong veggie??? Just a thought.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/racham/ Racham

    I tried putting amla powder in soup and it made the soup sour. I purchased size-00 empty gel capsule and filled them with the amla powder. I take 5 of these a day and it equals 1 tsp.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

      Whoah! What an incredible idea! I didn’t even know one could this. Thanks for the input!

  • kittyboo

    organic india …. i got a one lb bag for like 15.00 in local indian spice store.

  • Carol

    My friend has had 1 kidney removed in July (cancer) and now faces the spread of cancer in her lungs, liver. (not sure of anything else).  She was given 2 choices….2 take a pill at home (with very little % of success, or going in the hospital for 4 wks of chemo, home 2 and back for 4 more.  She is devastated and does not know what to do. Is this something (gooseberries) that you think would be beneficial to try…or other recommendations (she is being treated in Morgantown, WV.  are there other facilities she can contact to help, (opinions, educate on treatments, etc)  ANY info would be GREATLY appreciated. thanks….C

    • Bruce

      Carol if I were facing the challenges your
      friend is facing I would immediately contact the Burzynski Clinic in Houston
      Texas http://www.burzynskiclinic.com/. If you want some background view the documentary BURZYNSKI
      which is the story of Stanislaw Rajmund Burzynski a physician and biochemist and his
      “controversial” treatment for cancer. Also, order
      this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591202434/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00 titled I Have Cancer: What Should I Do?: Your
      Orthomolecular Guide for Cancer Management and read up on the mega dosage interveinous Vitamin C therapy among other cancer treatments. I wish your friend a healthy outcome.

  • Diamond

    can you eat gooseberries only or in a smoothies will there be any side effects because I have frozen gooseberries in my refrigerator.

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