Plants as a Potential Treatment for Cancer
By William Huang
What if we could use leaves, bark, and the roots of many trees and plants to create therapies for cancer?. During 1960-1981, more than 30,00 plant samples were screened by the National Cancer Institute to test their possibility to treat cancer. Botanists were hired to collect plants from across the United States because scientists suspected plants could contain treatments for cancer. For example, Taxol-derived from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree was discovered by Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina in 1971. It has been used as a chemotherapy drug. From that momentous discovery, several others have been made from plants and trees. In nature, plants produce antifungal chemicals that are toxic to fungi and serve as a mechanism to defend themselves from attacks by microorganisms. Human cells are similar to fungal cells; these cells are intended for plant defense and also have an inhibitory effect on human cells—and this includes cancer cells. Currently, human trials for the treatment of prostate cancer are being conducted to investigate the efficacy of one compound, Plumbagin, that is derived from the walnut tree.
Diseases that have taken scientists and researchers decades to cure could potentially have a promising treatment from the roots of a walnut tree. Plumbagin is a naphthoquinone derivative of the Plumbago zeylanica, a herbaceous plant with smooth stems and broad rounded leaves. These plants often grow in subtropical areas in the understory of monsoon forests. It is also found in genera dosera which is one of the largest species of carnivorous plants that grows in wet habitats. They are a component of black walnut drupes. Plumbagin often takes the appearance of a yellow dye and is a crystalline solid. Its molecular formula is made up of 11 carbons, 8 hydrogens, and 3 oxygens. However, plumbagin is not new. Their roots have been used for over 2,500 years in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine, and has been found to have antimicrobial effects and display specific activity against bacteria and yeast. The most surprising properties found in plumbagin, however, are its cancer-fighting potential. In contemporary studies, plumbagin has been found to carry anticancer and antiproliferative (rapid cell division) potential when tested in small organisms and cell culture.
Plumbagin is currently being investigated as a potential treatment for prostate cancer in human trials. Prostate cancer, a cancer of the prostate, is located in a small walnut-shaped gland in men. It is the most common type of cancer in men and grows in frequency among older men. Symptoms of prostate cancer are trouble urinating, decreased force in streams of urine, blood in semen, discomfort in the pelvic area, bone pain, along with a number of other symptoms. The cause of prostate cancer is when some cells in one’s prostate become abnormal. This leads to mutations and rapid division in which tumors metastasize or spread to other tissue. In this case, apoptosis or cell death occurs.
Citations:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3358965/
Image Credit:
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/US/en/product/sigma/p7262
