Student Nguyen Quoc Trung prepares anti-cancer active ingredients from soursop fruit with the hope of increasing the value of Vietnamese plants.
Quoc Trung, 22 years old, student of the Department of Chemistry, University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) is one of 14 typical young citizens of the city in 2024, honored on the first day of the year. 2025. Representing young people who are passionate about scientific research, Trung said that the award is a great source of motivation to help himself and the research team develop projects that have a positive impact on public health.
Trung’s research orientation is to study traditional medicine as an alternative to Western medicines. He wants to exploit the rich medicinal herbs in Vietnam with safe and effective remedies for health. “This is also a way to enhance the use value of native plant species in Vietnam,” Trung said.
In particular, with soursop, Trung aims to prepare pharmaceutical substances that inhibit glioblastoma cells. This is a difficult cancer to treat due to high drug resistance rate. When isolating compounds from soursop, Trung found that the compounds isolated from soursop were more active than the current treatment agent, temozolomide. Initial results offer new hope in developing effective treatments for cancer patients.
Nguyen Quoc Trung at the laboratory of the Department of Chemistry, University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City. Image: NVCC
Trung’s expectations were well-founded as he and his group had previously researched extracting antibacterial drugs from climbing chrysanthemum. The group then synthesized nano silver from climbing chrysanthemum grass to make an antibacterial solution that is not capable of causing cell toxicity or environmental pollution. This solution has the same effect as the commonly used antibiotic ampicillin today.
Or another study is to optimize traditional medicine using only three types of medicinal herbs instead of 15 like the traditional method. Trung said, optimizing the medicine to overcome the scarcity of medicinal herbs, especially some precious medicinal herbs today, helps save part of the cost of treatment. Currently, the research direction of Trung and his colleagues has been accepted for intellectual property registration. In the near future, Trung will cooperate with a medical facility to carry out clinical trials to evaluate effectiveness.
Nguyen Quoc Trung (wearing glasses) and his colleagues do an experiment at the school research laboratory. Image: NVCC
Research directions are assessed as potential, however Trung recognizes that bringing results from the laboratory to the market needs to go through many stages of clinical testing, safety and effectiveness assessment. Research also needs cooperation in the health sector, as well as investment capital and support. He is participating in an academic cooperation program at National Taipei University of Health Sciences and Nursing (Taiwan). With the help of experts, Trung conducts research experiments on modern equipment, perfecting scientific arguments.
Dr. Dang Hoang Phu, Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City), assessed Quoc Trung as a dynamic student, eager to learn and proactively looking for opportunities to cooperate in research. and abroad to conduct research. He said that China’s research direction has many advantages because Vietnam has quite diverse sources of plants and medicinal herbs, which can be developed into many forms of medicine and functional foods to serve patients, as well as enrich people. domestic medicinal resources. “The school will create conditions to support laboratories, specialized documents, and guide the research stages so that Trung can achieve its set goals,” Dr. Phu said.