
The biggest flaw of modern cancer treatment has to do with safety. The methods used to eradicate cancer cells are notable for being unsafe for the patient as well. Chemotherapy, the most popular cure for cancer, involves pumping toxic chemicals into the body. These toxins kill indiscriminately, poisoning cancerous and healthy cells alike. Patients going through chemo bear the brunt of not just their disease, but also the treatment’s side effects, which include fatigue, hair loss, impaired immunity, organ damage, sexual dysfunction, and even more pain, among others.
The study was comprehensive in that it did not look at just one or two medicinal plants, but 31 in total. The researchers wanted to determine which plants had the most potent cytotoxic activity on rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cancer cell lines. To determine this, they used an MTT assay and a brine shrimp lethality assay (BSLA), a test that determines the toxicity of a substance based on how effectively it kills brine shrimps.
Rhabdomyosarcoma is a type of cancer that affects the soft tissue and is known to affect people below 20 years old. It rarely occurs in the U.S. (about five cases per million children in a year), but in the researchers’ home country, it is one of the leading cause of death among children.
The researchers discovered that among the extracts tested, those of Macaranga barteri and Calliandra portoricensis had the most significant cytotoxic activity on both the RD cell line and the brine shrimps. When examined further, they found that the dichloromethane fraction of M. barteri and the ethyl acetate fraction of C. portoricensis were more effective than cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapy drug, by up to six and four times respectively.
Furthermore, both extracts exhibited a high selectivity index, which means that unlike normal chemo drugs, they acted against cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
The researchers noted that while 11 plants showed cytotoxic activity in their research, only those two exceeded the effects of cyclophosphamide as a cancer cell killer.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-09-02-traditional-african-medicines-observed-to-kill-cancer-cells.html