Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
One fraction, designated FV-7, in the water soluble ingredient of the pollen extract Cernilton was found to be inhibitory to the growth of a prostate cancer cell line. Characterization of FV-7 by high-resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance identified the fraction as hydroxamic acid, 2,4-dihydroxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one (DIBOA). To confirm this further, we synthesized an authentic sample of DIBOA and found subsequently that the synthetic DIBOA was structurally indistinguishable from FV-7. Furthermore, in a separate experiment we compared the in vitro effects of FV-7 and DIBOA on the growth of a prostate cancer cell line and found that in both cases the effect was inhibitory and that the inhibition curves obtained for both compounds were virtually identical.
Zhang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.