Herbal Anti Cancer Medicine : The Vinca Alkaloids Isolated From The Madagascar Periwinkle Plant Essay

The earth’s tropical forests are major contributors to the treatment of diseases and the relief of suffering. Covering only 6% of the Earth's surface, tropical moist forests contain at least half of all species. Rainforest plants are the source of compounds useful for medicinal purposes. The abundant plant resources of tropical forests have already provided solid medical advances, yet only 1% of the known plant species have been thoroughly examined for their medicinal potentials. 70% of the 3000 plants identified by the United States National Cancer Institute as having potential anti-cancer properties are endemic to the rainforest.

What are some of the things that come to mind when you think of cancer treatments? Perhaps you envision some sort of chemotherapy treatment, or a bottle of expensive pills used to target specific genetic mutations that may have caused the horrid disease to develop. While these treatments have been proven to save some of cancers victims, research suggests that there is a natural cure that deems promising in curing cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. What if there was a safe, natural herb that could work for nearly every type of cancer?

Only one percent of the known plant and animal species have been examined for medicine potential, but 70% of the 3000 plant species identified as having anti-cancer qualities are found in South American rainforests and others worldwide. These various species aid the science world in a number of different ways:

may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others. Evidence from one cell culture study

Earlier studies on mice have shown that the poison can specifically attack and destroy tumor cells.

Cancer or the big C as it is commonly referred to by laymen is a scary word for people to hear or discuss. The exact cause of cancer is unknown, but is believed to be caused by many elements, including diet, chemicals, tobacco, radiation, and mutations that occur in the human body, as well as defective cells and genes. Experts know that cancer requires oxygen and nutrients to grow more cancer cells. The paper will explore the concept of angiogenesis, what it is, and how it impacts cancer, along with exploring activators and inhibitors to stop the growth of cancer. Natural products will be reviewed to highlight any potential value in eliminating and reducing the risks of getting any type of cancer.

The Autumn Crocus, also known as meadow saffron, is not threatened and is sold as an ornamental plant since it has been cultivated in much of the world (Akram 2012). Although colchicine is typically used for treatment of gout and rheumatic complaints, there has been renewed interest in this medicine by many natural product researchers (Heran 2011). Further research of colchicine derived from the Autumn Crocus as a cancer fighting drug should be conducted due to ability to block cell

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. As of 1990, there has been estimated 5 million people who have been taken by the disease. Every one of four people in the U.S will die of cancer, averaging at 1,500 people per day. There are many things in our daily lives that contribute to the growth and spread of cancer. The food and chemical industries take the blame. Naming it the “man made disease.” What many people do not understand is that there are other treatment options rather than chemo and radiation therapy. One of these alternative treatments is natural medicine. Natural medicine is beneficial because people have

Paclitaxel works to treat cancers because it breakdowns the microtubules during cell division. Microtubules are part of the cell that is known for dividing and replicating itself. So by implementing this natural product in the process of chemotherapy it aims to target rapidly reproducing tumor cells in order to slow down or eliminate cancer. Taxol is in fact a natural product that is found in the yew pine tree that happens to grow very slowly. The bark of the tree needs to be peeled off in order to obtain the paclitaxel that so happens to kill the tree in the process. Some Paclitaxel has become essential in the medical field that it is on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines. In the case of producing the important drug where was a new way to create the drug faster since it takes a lot of time to create the drug naturally. According to A New Synthesis of Taxol from Baccatin III by Erkan Baloglu, “The partial synthesis of Taxol is very important when compared to that of direct isolation of Taxol from the western yew, since the availability of baccatin III or 10-DAB is greater than that of Taxol. Another advantage of the semi-synthetic approach is that various Taxol analogs, such as Taxotere, which may have improved bioactivity as compared with Taxol, can also be synthesized”(pg.32). Meaning that in this case producing medicine in a semisynthetic production it would yield equal results compared to the natural extraction of Taxol; however the semisynthetic can be produced in a faster mater compared to the natural form. The only difference in the performance and effectiveness of natural and synthesized (semi-synthesized taxon) is Taxotere, also known as Docetaxel that happens to be a production of the synthesized product. This products is twice as strong in potency compared to paclitaxel however, paclitaxel may cause fewer side

Vincristine is a cell-cycle specific chemotherapy drug that target the structural protein tubulin during mitosis in cell division. The anticancer property of vincristine is a result of its ability to inhibit cell division during early mitosis. The drug binds to tubulin monomers preventing the formation of spindle microtubules and therefore alter the microtubules structure and function resulting in chromosomes not separating. Vincristine stops the separation of the duplicated chromosome to form two daughter cells and hence prevent cell division (metaphase arrest).

The prenylflavonoids experimented with, included xanthohumol, isoxanthohumol and 8-prenylnaringenin (Monteiro, R., Faria, A., Azevedo, I., & Calhau, C., 2007). Usually xanthohumol is the main focus of clinical experiments like this because it is the most ample prenylated chalcone that lies in Hops extract. Monteiro, Faria, Azevedo, & Calhau’s (2007) explain that in the experiment, aromatase activity was measured through a special water assay. Cell proliferation was determined by an incorporation of a crystalline nucleoside called thymidine, sulforhodamine B protein measurements and Ki-67 immunostaining, which is an antibody-based method of detection. Apoptosis, which is the death of cells that occur during an organism's development, was measured through a method of detecting DNA

One of the most famous and the world's first billion anticancer drug, taxol, a highly, was originally isolated from the Pacific yew tree in the early 1960s. The drug has been approved for the treatment of ovarian cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1992. Taxol was also observed active against the lung, breast, and head and neck cancer, and also in the advanced forms of Kaposi's sarcoma (in people with AIDS). Taxol (mitotic inhibitor) has a unique mechanism of action, involving breakdown of microtubule during cell division (1). Besides its clinical application, taxol is being extensively used as microtubule stabilizer in biological and biomedical research. Taxol is found extremely in low amounts in the needles, bark, and roots

Microtubule stabilization thus also provides a promising conceptual framework for the future discovery of new and improved antitumor agents and this is not in the least reflected in the significant number of new agents (taxane and non-taxane based) that are currently undergoing clinical evaluation in humans.

Transition to 1st main point: First, let’s talk about the anticancer properties that are found in certain teas. ll. Body