Astragalus memebranaceus (AST) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine used in treatment of common cold, diarrhea, fatigue, anorexia and cardiac diseases [
1‐
4]. In recent years, radix Astragalus membranaceus has also been used to ameliorate the side effects of cytotoxic antineoplastic drugs [
5]. The active pharmacological constituents of radix Astragalus membranaceus include various polysaccharides, saponins and flavonoids [
6]. Among these, Astragalus polysaccharides have been most widely studied, mainly on their immunopotentiating properties like stimulation of murine B-cell proliferation and cytokine production [
7]. Apart from these, clinical studies also showed that Astragalus polysaccharides could counteract the side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, such as a significant reduction in the degree of myelosuppression in cancer patients [
8]. Recently, there are growing evidences that Astragalus extract may be a potential anti-tumorigenic agent. For instance, hepatocarcinogenesis could be prevented in rats fed with the aqueous extract of Astragalus, which is mainly composed of Astragalus polysaccharides [
9]. There are also reports that describe the potentiating effect of Astragalus extract in recombinant interleukin-2-generated lymphokine-activated cells upon the anti-tumorigenic action of drugs against murine renal carcinoma [
10]. Saponins isolated from radix Astragalus membranaceus consist of astragalosides (I–VIII) and some of their isomer isoastragalosides (I,II and IV) [
11,
12]. Similar to the polysaccharides obtained from the same herb, Astragalus saponins have been found to possess immunomodulating effects. The pure isolated saponin astragaloside IV could increase murine B and T cell proliferation [
13] and possess cardioprotective properties [
14,
15]. Some research showed that the total saponins obtained from Astragalus membranaceus (AST) possessed significant antitumorigenic activity in HT-29 human colon cancer cells and tumor xenograft [
16]. AST suppressed cancer cell growth by inhibiting proliferation through phase-specific cell cycle arrest and promotion of caspase-dependent apoptosis. In nude mice xenograft, the AST induced reduction in tumor volume was comparable with that produced by the conventional chemotherapeutic drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), of which the side effects (including mortality) associated with the drug combo 5-FU 1 oxaliplatin could be largely alleviated when AST was used along with 5-FU in replacement of oxaliplatin [
17].
Gastric cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in the world, almost two-thirds of gastric cancer cases and deaths occur in less developed regions. Gastric cancer is a significant cancer burden currently and be one of the key issues in cancer prevention and control strategy in China. But the effect of Astragalus membranaceus on proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of gastric cancer BGC-823 cells remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of Astragalus saponins on proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of gastric cancer BGC-823 cells.