Mouse Study shows Hope for Lemongrass and Breast Cell Health

by | Jan 12, 2016 | 2012, Breast Cancer, Essential Oils, Women's Health

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. This study shows lemongrass oil reduced the percent of mice given a cancer causing agent from 100% to 40% in breast cancer found.

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus Stapf) leaves have a long history in South American countries, especially Brazil, for possessing a wide range of health benefits that range from being a pain-killer to maintaining healthy levels of inflammation and having sedating properties (1, 2). The essential oil of lemongrass leaves is also used as a food preservative, flavoring agent, and ingredient in fragrances and cosmetics (2). Finally, lemongrass oil has been used pharmacologically for anxiety, convulsions, and as an antibacterial and antifungal agent (3, 4, 5), even affecting immune system function (6, 7).

Now a new study in mice (8) offers hope of another role for the essential oil from lemongrass: helping maintain breast cell health. In the study, 30 mice were divided into 3 groups:

  • Group 1: 500 milligrams of lemongrass essential oil per kilogram of bodyweight, 5 days per week for 5 weeks (10 mice = control).
  • Group 2: No lemongrass, but given 2 injections (30 mg/kg/bodyweight) of a cancer-causing agent called MNU (N-methyl-N-nitrosourea) at weeks 3 and 5 (10 mice).
  • Group 3: Given the same dose of lemongrass injections as group 1 and the same MNU injections as group 2 (10 mice).

24 hours after the last MNU injection in week 5, tissue samples were taken from breast tissue as well as the colon and bladder were collected for histological and immunohistochemical analysis.

At the end of week 5, the researchers noted a significant protective effect of lemongrass in the breast tissue of the mice, but not the colon or bladder tissue. Specifically, in the breast tissue samples, while 100% of the mice in group 2 (MNU injections with no lemongrass) had breast cancer growths detected, only 40% of the mice in group 3 (MNU injections with lemongrass) and 0% of those in the control group had breast cancer growths detected (p < 0.05).

What’s more, when the researchers looked at a measure of healthy cell death called “apoptosis”, those in the group 1 (control group) had a 0.95% apoptosis rate compared to 0.45% rate in group 2 and 0.65% apoptosis rate in group 3 (p < 0.01). This showed that lemongrass helps maintain healthy cell function even in the presence of a carcinogen.

For the researchers, “These findings indicate that lemongrass essential oil presented a protective role against early MNU-induced mammary gland alterations in…mice” and that long-term studies are needed to study the “effective influence of lemongrass essential oil on the initiation stage of [breast cancer].”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com

Source: Bidinotto, Lucas T., et al. “Modifying effects of lemongrass essential oil on specific tissue response to the carcinogen N-methyl-N-nitrosurea in female BALB/c mice.” Journal of medicinal food 15.2 (2012): 161-168.

© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. and Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition

Posted May 6, 2014.

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  3. Da Silva CB, Guterres SS, Weisbeimer V, Schapoval EES: Antifungal activity of the lemongrass oil and citral against Candida spp. Braz J Infect Dis 2008;12:63–66.
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  8. Bidinotto LT.  Modifying Effects of Lemongrass Essential Oil on Specific Tissue Response to the Carcinogen N-Methyl-N-Nitrosurea in Female BALB/c Mice .J Med Food 2012 Feb;15(2):161-8. doi: 10.1089/jmf.2010.0278. Epub 2011 Nov 14.