More Than 50 Herbal Medicines Hold Possibility for Cancer Cure

Researches explore the probability of some Chinese herbal medicines to be effective ingredients in making anticancer drugs. (Photo : Getty Images)

Medical experts and nutritionists have long acknowledged that fruits and vegetables contain anticancer properties.
Mother Nature seemingly holds another key for cancer prevention and treatment.
Chinese scientists learned that 57 kinds of medicinal plants commonly used in creating traditional Chinese medicine have anticancer components, reported Xinhua.
Dai Shaoxing from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, however, said that additional research should be conducted to determine their full potential to cure cancer.
The fruit of the medicinal plant Siraitia grosvenorii, for one, contains mogrosides, whose extract--the natural compound mogroside V--was tested for its antitumor effect and its probable capability to treat pancreatic cancer, according to CAS website.
The authors who conducted the tests consolidated their works and subsequent findings in a paper titled, “Functional Characterization of Cucurbitadienol Synthase and Triterpene Glycosyltransferase Involved in Biosynthesis of Mogrosides from Siraitia grosvenorii,” published by peer-reviewed online journal Oncogenesis, Plant & Cell Physiology (the official journal of the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists) and the American Journal of Cancer Research.
In China, Siraitia grosvenorii, commonly called luo han guo, typically grows in Lingui District and Yongfu County in the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province. Other people call it monk fruit, which also grows in Thailand.
U.K.-based National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds another study that will explore the possibilities of Chinese herbal medicines to cure recurrent urinary tract infections (RUTIs), according to the University of Southampton as posted on its website.
The researchers from the said public university in England will undertake the task of finding out if Chinese herbal medicines can be used to treat RUTIs and if they can also replace certain antibiotics to treat sore throats and acute coughs.
“Chinese herbal medicine has a recorded history of treating symptoms of UTIs for over 2000 years,” said Dr. Andrew Flower, NIHR Research Fellow in the Complementary and Integrated Medicine Research Unit at the university.
According to the university, “urinary tract infections are the most common bacterial infection presented by women” in the U.K. and likewise common among women in other countries.

Read more: http://en.yibada.com/articles/127461/20160530/more-than-50-herbal-medicines-hold-possibility-for-cancer-cure.htm#ixzz4AMSGtozl

U.K.-based National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds another study that will explore the possibilities of Chinese herbal medicines to cure recurrent urinary tract infections (RUTIs), according to the University of Southampton as posted on its website.
The researchers from the said public university in England will undertake the task of finding out if Chinese herbal medicines can be used to treat RUTIs and if they can also replace certain antibiotics to treat sore throats and acute coughs.
“Chinese herbal medicine has a recorded history of treating symptoms of UTIs for over 2000 years,” said Dr. Andrew Flower, NIHR Research Fellow in the Complementary and Integrated Medicine Research Unit at the university.
According to the university, “urinary tract infections are the most common bacterial infection presented by women” in the U.K. and likewise common among women in other countries.

Read more: http://en.yibada.com/articles/127461/20160530/more-than-50-herbal-medicines-hold-possibility-for-cancer-cure.htm#ixzz4AMSGtozl

 

Protective Effect of Aframomum meleguetaphenolics

Protective Effect of Aframomum meleguetaphenolics Against CCl₄-Induced Rat Hepatocytes Damage; Role of Apoptosis and Pro-inflammatory Cytokines inhibition

Abstract

Aframomum melegueta is a commonly used African spice. Through a hepatoprotective bioassay-guided isolation, the chloroform fraction ofA.melegueta seeds yielded one new diarylheptanoid named 3-(S)-acetyl-1-(4′-hydroxy-3′, 5′-di methoxyphenyl)-7-(3″,4″, 5″-trihydroxyphenyl)heptane (1), and two new hydroxyphenylalkanones, [8]-dehydrogingerdione (2) and [6]-dehydroparadol (3), in addition to six known compounds (4–9). The hepatoprotective effect of A. meleguetamethanol extract, sub-fractions and isolated compounds was investigated using carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄)-induced liver injury in a rat hepatocytes model. The methanol, chloroform extracts and compounds 1, 5, 8 and 9 of A. melegueta significantly inhibited the elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), tumor necrosis factor (TNFα), interleukin-1beta (Il-1β), caspase3 and 9 and enhanced the reduced liver glutathione (GSH) level caused by CCl₄ intoxication. These results indicate thatA.melegueta extracts, and isolated compounds play a protective role in CCl₄ induced acute liver injury which might be due to elevated antioxidative defense potentials, suppressed inflammatory responses and apoptosis of liver tissue.

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep05880

Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activities of Aframomum sceptrum

http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=tasr.2011.190.197&org=10

http://www.montosogardens.com/aframomum_chrysanthum.htm

Cytotoxicity of four Aframomum species (A. arundinaceum, A. alboviolaceum, A. kayserianum and A. polyanthum) towards multi-factorial drug resistant cancer cell lines

Cytotoxicity of four Aframomum species (A. arundinaceum, A. alboviolaceum, A. kayserianum and A. polyanthum) towards multi-factorial drug resistant cancer cell lines

Background

The search for natural products as potential cytotoxic agents has yielded promising candidates. However multidrug resistance (MDR) is still a major hurdle for patients receiving chemotherapy. In the present study, we evaluated the cytotoxicity of the methanol extracts of four dietary Aframomum plant species (A. arundinaceum, A. alboviolaceum, A. kayserianum and A. polyanthum) against nine sensitive and MDR cancer cell lines. We have also identified the bioactive constituents of A. arundinaceum.

Methods

The cytotoxicity of the methanol extracts of the above plants was determined using a resazurin reduction assay. Chromatographic techniques were used to isolate the constituents of A. arundinaceum.

Results

A preliminary experiment on leukemia CCRF-CEM cells at 40 μg/mL showed that the extracts from A. kayserianum and A. alboviolaceum as well as the isolated compounds namely compounds aframodial (1), 8(17),12-labdadien-15,16-dial (2), galanolactone (3), 1-p-menthene-3,6-diol (6) and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene (7) were less active, inducing more than 50% growth of this cell line contrary to A. polyanthum and A. arundinaceum extracts, galanals A (4) and B (5), naringenin (8) and kaempferol-3,7,4’-trimethylether (9). The IC₅₀ values below or around 30 μg/mL were recorded with A. arundinaceumextract against eight of the nine tested cancer cell lines. This extract as well as compound 8 displayed IC₅₀ values below 40 μg/mL towards the nine tested cancer cell lines whilst A. polyanthum extract, compounds 4, 5 and 9 showed selective activities. Collateral sensitivity (hypersensitivity) was observed with A. arundinaceum extract towards leukemia CEM/ADR5000 cells and glioblastoma U87MG.ΔEGFR compared to their respective sensitive counterparts CEM/CEM and U87MG.

More:

http://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6882-14-340