Hot water-extracted Lycium barbarum and Rehmannia glutinosa inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Table 1 Composition of hot water-extracted Lycium barbarum and Rehmannia glutinosa¹

Ingredient (mg/g)	Lycium barbarum extract	Rehmannia glutinosa extract
Carbohydrate	762.8	700.4
Protein	134.7	47.2
Fat	3.9	2.9
Moisture	221.6	92.4
Ash	0.5	0.4

¹The samples were at least triplicated.

Table 2 Effect of hot water-extracted Lycium barbarum (LBE) and Rehmannia glutinosa (RGE) on cell proliferation in rat hepatocellular carcinoma (H-4-II-E) cells (n = 6, mean ± SD)

	Cell proliferation (% of control)
	6 h	12 h	18 h	24 h
Control	100.0 ± 0.7ehj	100.0 ± 8.6ehj	100.0 ± 5.9fhj	100.0 ± 5.9fhj
1 g/L LBE	100.3 ± 9.8fh	100.7 ± 8.2eh	100.1 ± 5.7f,h	97.8 ± 6.3fh
2 g/L LBE	84.4 ± 6.6adh	89.3 ± 7.5ach	83.8 ± 7.5bdh	86.3 ± 2.9bdh
5 g/L LBE	37.6 ± 6.9bdf	23.8 ± 4.6bdf	18.0 ± 5.3bdf	15.1 ± 3.1bdf
1 g/L RGE	99.5 ± 7.1fhj	97.0 ± 13.4hj	111.4 ± 11.7afhj	96.1 ± 5.3fhj
2 g/L RGE	80.9 ± 18.4bdhj	88.3 ± 9.4ahj	84.6 ± 14.4bdhj	84.4 ± 6.4bdhj
5 g/L RGE	58.3 ± 11.4bdfj	74.6 ± 7.0bdfj	57.1 ± 10.1bdfj	71.2 ± 6.7bdfj
10 g/L RGE	29.2 ± 6.9bdfh	29.5 ± 6.3bdfh	25.0 ± 5.7bdfh	24.2 ± 7.1bdfh

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01 vs control,

^cP < 0.05,

^dP < 0.01 vs 1 g/L corresponding treatment,

^eP < 0.05,

^fP < 0.01 vs 2 g/L corresponding treatment; ^gP < 0.05,

^hP < 0.01 vs 5 g/L corresponding treatment,

^jP < 0.01 vs 10 g/L corresponding treatment within the same column.

Table 3 Effect of hot water-extracted LBE and RGE on cell proliferation in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HA22T/VGH) cells after 24 h incubation (n = 6, mean ± SD)

	Cell proliferation (% of control)
Control	100.0 ± 4.2dfh
2 g/L LBE	86.0 ± 5.9bch
5 g/L LBE	77.0 ± 5.1abh
10 g/L LBE	56.8 ± 3.9bdf
2 g/L RGE	86.3 ± 5.9bfh
5 g/L RGE	74.3 ± 7.5bd
10 g/L RGE	70.3 ± 7.7bd

^bP < 0.01 vs control;

^aP < 0.05,

^dP < 0.01 vs 2 g/L corresponding treatment;

^cP < 0.05,

^fP < 0.01 vs 5 g/L corresponding treatment;

^hP < 0.01 vs 10 g/L corresponding treatment.