[MPWG] NEWS: Traditional Medicine: Identifying Potential Cancer Treatment Of Herbal Origin

[Olivia Kwong]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080304120755.htm

Traditional Medicine: Identifying Potential Cancer Treatments Of Herbal 
Origin

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2008) . Curing cancer with natural products -- a 
case for shamans and herbalists? Not at all, for many chemotherapies to 
fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were 
developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in 
prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular 
periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the 
source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against 
malignant lymphomas. The modern anti-cancer drugs topotecan and irinotecan 
are derived from a constituent of the Chinese Happy Tree.

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