RESEARCH ARTICLES CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 118, NO. 1, 10 JANUARY 2020 87 *For correspondence. (e-mail: dalia.m@tu.edu.sa) Study the effect of star anise extract and the pulp of kiwifruit on mice infected with cancer Dalia I. Hemdan 1, * and Nabila Y. Mahmoud Abdulmaguid 1,2 1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif–Al-Haweiah, P. O. Box 888, ZIP code 21974, Taif, KSA 2 Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Home Economics, Al Azhar University, Egypt The antitumour activity of kiwifruit juice (K), star anise decoction (SA) and their mixture as nutritional treatment was studied in mice with Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC). Female Swiss albino mice were treated by oral feeding with kiwifruit juice (1 ml/ mice), star anise decoction (1 ml/mice) and their mix- ture (1 ml/mice) for 14 consecutive days. Cisplatin drug was injected two times (10 mg/mice i.p.) on the fifth and seventh days. The results showed that kiwi- fruit and star anise as nutritional sources helped to bring back serum levels of AST and ALT enzymes and creatinine activities. Kiwifruit and star anise de- creased tumour cell count and brought back the hae- matological data to near normal levels, arresting the cell cycle at normal phases. Keywords: Cancer, cell cycle, kiwifruit, mice, star anise. CANCER is considered as one of the most fatal diseases in the world 1 . It is the second cause of death worldwide, the first being cardiovascular diseases 2 . Clinical cancer treatment – whether surgery, chemotherapy or radiothe- rapy – varies appropriately based on the clinical find- ings 3 . In 2007, the World Cancer Research Foundation re- ported that 35% of all cancer incidence worldwide is re- lated to factors of lifestyle like physical activity, food and nutrition habits 4 . Recent studies have emphasized that consuming more spices, vegetables and fruits reduces the incidence of cancer 5,6 . Vegetables and fruits are rich in various antioxidants (ascorbic acid, polyphenol, tocopherols and carotenoids). Antioxidants have beneficial effects on human health 7 . Phytocompounds are bioactive components in fruits. They play an important role as a protective shield for the human body against all chronic diseases 8 . Actinidia fruits species belong to the Actinidiaceae family. They are dis- tributed throughout the world, especially in eastern Asia. Kiwifruit is classified as Actinidia species and has now become popular worldwide 9 . Fruits of Actinidia species are rich sources of vitamin E, flavonoids, minerals, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), pigments, chlorophylls and carotenoids 10–12 . Kiwifruit has preventive effects against certain cancers through its antioxidant activities. Recent- ly, kiwifruit was used for the treatment of different kinds of lung and liver cancers 13 . Star anise Illicium verum Hook (Illiciaceae), is an aro- matic, evergreen tree. It is found in Asian countries, mainly China and Pakistan. In 2002, the Ministry of Health of China classified I. verum as both medicine and food. This classification of I. verum ensures low toxicity to humans 14 . Padmashree et al. 15 and Cheng Hong et al. 16 reported that star anise – both plant and its extract – is an effective source of natural antioxidants. It contains high amounts of polyphenols such as anethole 17 . Compounds like phenolic acid derived from the plant have shown good effects in many anticancer and antioxidant models 18 . The present study evaluates the antitumor activity of star anise (SA), kiwifruit (K) and their mixture (K + SA) as a natural and safe source of food in reducing the risk of Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) as a tumour model in mice. Material and methods Mice Female CD-1 mice (weighing 18:22 g), eight weeks of age, were used as experimental animals. The animals and ration diet were obtained from Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia. The Public Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals was followed in all animal proce- dures. To adapt to the laboratory conditions, the animals were kept in our laboratory for a week before starting the experiments 19 . Reagents and cell lines Cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum) was purchased from Sigma–Aldrich, Co, USA. The source that provided us with EAC was the National Cancer Institute at Cairo, Egypt. EAC was kept in the laboratory by transplanting females CD-1 mice in the ascitic form. Tumour cell sus- pensions were prepared in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at 2 × 10 6 viable cells/ml and intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) 0.25 × 10 6 tumour cells/mice suspended in 0.1 ml (ref. 20).