What is Kan Zaw Oil?

What is Kan Zaw Oil?

Kan-Zaw, or technical name Payena paralleloneura Kurz., its common names are Myatzu, Pesin-swe and Zeinzwe in Burmese. It is a large evergreen tree belonging to the family Sapotaceae.

In the South-East Asian countries, natural products are being tested for the treatment but these are yet to prove their efficacy in pre-clinical and clinical studies. Some of the food plants are believed to be an important source of nutrition as well as chemical substances having potential of therapeutic effects. These plants are effective source of both traditional and modern medicines and are genuinely useful for primary healthcare. Plants have been rich source of medicine because they produce wide range array of bio-active molecule (Agharkar, 1991).

Kan-Zaw tree produces Kan-zaw™ oil with high medicinal value. It is highly regarded as a universal panacea in the ayurvedic medicine and large evergreen tree distributed in only Tanintharyi region of Myanmar.

Kan-Zaw™ oil is used for primary healthcare in rural areas in Myanmar. According to local citizens and traditional practitioners in Southern Myanmar, they used Kan-Zaw™ oil from the seeds as major remedy traditional medicine for the treatment of breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and various cancers, anti-peptic ulcer, paralysis, bronchitis, rash, chest pain, injury, sores, skin issues and other ailments.

Fatty acid analysis of Kan-Zaw seeds (FAME analysis)

In the latest work the fatty acid analysis, Kan-Zaw™ oil contains approximately >70% α-eleostearic acid and 3.25 % β-eleostearic acid, which is an unusual conjugated fatty acid that imparts a potent anti-cancer application and industrially important drying qualities to Kan-Zaw oil.

The present study also investigated cyto-toxic potential of various extracts of Kan-Zaw seeds using ethanol, methanol, acetone, chloroform and commercial Kan-Zaw™ oil against human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) by MTT 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay.

The various extracts of Kan-Zaw seeds, i.e.ethanol, methanol, acetone, chloroform, and commercial Kan-Zaw™ oil are effective towards tested cell line, with inhibition, and they were found that with the highest 87.14%, 81.56%, 87.48%, 87.99% and 88.32% respectively. Kan-Zaw or Payena paralleloneura Kurz. extracts and oil have shown significant anticancer activity on HeLa cells.

In details of the scientific findings, please see the below thesis from Dr. Lwin, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Lashio University.

ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF VARIOUS KAN-ZAW EXTRACTS ON HUMAN CERVICAL CANCER CELLS (HELA)