Purple bamboo salt has anticancer activity in TCA8113 cells in vitro and preventive effects on buccal mucosa cancer in mice in vivo

Bamboo salt is a traditional healthy salt known in Korea. The in vitro anticancer effects of the salt were evaluated using a 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in TCA8113 human tongue carcinoma cells. At 1% concentration, the growth inhibitory rate of purple bamboo salt was 61% higher than that of sea salt (27%). Apoptosis analysis of the cancer cells was carried out using 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining to investigate the mechanism of the anticancer effects in tongue carcinoma cells. Purple bamboo salt induced a stronger apoptotic effect than sea salt. An Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mouse buccal mucosa cancer model was established by injecting mice with U14 squamous cell carcinoma cells. Following injection, the wound at the injection site was smeared with salt samples. It was observed that the tumor volumes for the group treated with purple bamboo salt were smaller than those from the sea salt treatment and control groups. The sections of buccal mucosa cancer tissue showed that canceration in the purple bamboo salt group was weaker compared with that in the sea salt group. Similar results were observed in the lesion section of the cervical lymph. Using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blotting, the purple bamboo salt group demonstrated an increase in Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) and a decrease in B cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression, compared with the sea salt and control groups. The results demonstrated that purple bamboo salt had improved in vivo buccal mucosa cancer preventive activity compared with sea salt in mice.