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April 18, 2007

Indian Herbal Remedy Offers Hope In Pancreatic Cancer

Topics: Medicine

A team at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute has found that extracts of triphala slowed the growth of human pancreatic tumours grafted onto mice. The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, offer hope that one day a treatment might be developed.

Previous studies have shown triphala to have an anti-cancer activity in cell cultures, and the new research found this effect also worked in mice fed the herb preparation, without damaging normal pancreatic cells.

The team fed mice grafted with human pancreatic tumours a triphala solution five days per week.

After four weeks they compared the tumour size and proteins contents of the tumours with those of a control group of mice that had not received the triphala.

They found that the tumours in triphala-treated mice were half the size of those in the untreated mice.

The also found the treated mice tumour cells had higher levels of proteins associated with apoptosis - the process by the which the body normally disposes of damaged, old of unneeded cells.

In cancer cells this process is often faulty, allowing the tumors to divide rapidly without any cells dying. (Continue reading here)

Triphala, an ancient herbal blend that is one of the most longest-used most commonly used herbal remedies in the Ayurvedic system of healing, is a botanical preparation comprised of equal parts of three herbal fruits: Harada (Terminalia chebula, black myrobalan, The Buddha's Chosen Herb), amla (Emblica officinalis or Indian gooseberry), and bihara (Terminalia bellerica). It is prepared by first drying the fruits, then grounding them into a powder, and then blending them in accordance with the precise directions of Ayrurvedic tradition, and is said to exhibit a number of health benefits, including antioxidant activity, reduction in cholesterol levels, normalization of blood pressure, inhibits HIV, reduction of tumors in animasl, and improvement in liver function.

More on Triphala here...

Related research studies on Triphala at PubMed.

Cross posted from New Hope Blog

Posted by Richard at April 18, 2007 12:35 PM

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