“Medicine for cancer treatment is very expensive nowadays. Our aim is not to create medicinal capsules at the price of 1 million, 2 million dong but some hundred thousand or several tens of thousand dong”.
It was shared by Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram in the presentation of two patents for the Ho Chi Minh City Patent Award 2015 - 2016.
Finding out remedy from Crinum latifolium L.
Dr. Tram’s patent name is Process of selective extraction of bioactive Flavonoid and Alkaloid fractions from Crinum latifolium L.’s leaves for cancer treatment. These two active substances obtained from the leaves of Crinum latifolium L. have the ability to stimulate and regulate the immune system, prevent the growth of tumor cells to be used as herbal materials to produce cancer medicines.
Organizing Board along with guests visiting the plantation. Courtesy: Bich Tram.
Dr. Tram has presented an experiment to test biological effects of Flavonoid (H1) fraction with tumor cell Graffi. H1 fraction put effect on marrow tumor cell. When tumor cell Graffi got cytotoxicity at the 24th hour in vitro condition, the cell was affected, quickly forming into grape-shaped clusters. Karyoplast got disintegrated and cell dissolved after 2 hours since treatment with H1 fraction in vitro condition and was completely broken down after 48 hours of incubation.
Crinum latifolium L. plantation of Dr. Tram. Courtesy: Bich Tram
In the state of dirty food almost creeping into people’s meals everyday and causing cancer, Dr. Tram’s patent was highly evaluated by the Review Board.
Vietnamese people using Vietnamese herbal medicines
“When I was in the first, second year at university, I was very surprised by seeing my mother selling several houses in turn to study medicinal herbs, sometimes I told her not to sell another”, said Ms. Trang - Dr. Tram’s daughter. Money from selling two houses in Hanoi and one in Nha Trang along with her accumulation sum from competition awards was invested into 20 hectares of Crinum latifolium L. plantation to serve research and production. After the screening process of about 100 varieties, Dr. Tram has found this herb (previously Crinum latifolium L. was not listed in the list of medicinal herbs in Vietnam).
Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tram in her house. Courtesy: Bich Tram.
Dr. Tram confided: “My father kept reminding me to do research on Vietnamese herbs to produce more new medicines for our people to use, not to import from foreign countries anymore. Vietnamese people’s body is more suitable with natural plants. Like the saying by Tue Tinh: Vietnamese people use Vietnamese herbal medicines”.
Dr. Tram has spent most of her life to study cancer treating medicines from Crinum latifolium L., as lawyer Nguyen Minh Huong - Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City Intellectual Property Association commented that this is a persistent, admirable research process.
The product is waiting to be tested clinically and taken to register a patent right.
Bich Tram