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ABSTRACT: Following the known principle of "fighting fire with fire", poisonous Chinese herbal medicine (PCHM) has been historically used in cancer therapies by skilled Chinese practitioners for thousands of years. In fact, most of the marketed natural anti-cancer compounds (e.g., camptothecin derivatives, vinca alkaloids, etc.) are often known in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and recorded as poisonous herbs as well. Inspired by the encouraging precedents, significant researches into the potential of novel anticancer drugs from other PCHM-derived natural products have been ongoing for several years and PCHM is increasingly being recognized as a gathering place for promising anti-cancer drugs. The present review aimed at giving a rational understanding of the toxicity of PCHM and, especially, providing the most recent developments on PCHM-derived anti-cancer compounds.
Information on the toxicity and safety control of PCHM, as well as PCHM-derived anti-cancer compounds, was gathered from the articles, books and monographs published in the past 20 years.
Based on an objective introduction to the CHM toxicity, we clarified the general misconceptions about the safety of CHM and summarized the traditional experiences in dealing with the toxicity. Several PCHM-derived compounds, namely gambogic acid, triptolide, arsenic trioxide, and cantharidin, were selected as representatives, and their traditional usage and mechanism of anti-cancer actions were discussed.
Natural products derived from PCHM are of extreme importance in devising new drugs and providing unique ideas for the war against cancer. To fully exploit the potential of PCHM in cancer therapy, more attentions are advocated to be focused on their safety evaluation and mechanism exploration.
Journal of ethnopharmacology 03/2012; 140(1):33-45. · 2.32 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Curcumin, a low-molecular-weight natural polyphenol mainly found in the plant Curcuma longa (turmeric), is widely used as a
food colorant and as a potential protective agent against several chronic diseases including cancer, HIV-infection, neurological,
cardiovascular, and skin diseases. Moreover, evidences from long-term use process and preclinical trials have demonstrated low
toxicity of curcumin, even at relatively high doses. However, it has been well known that the application of curcumin was limited
owing to its water insolubility, instability, and poor bioavailability. For decades, many attempts have been made to compensate for
these disadvantages, with the development of improved delivery platforms as the feasible approaches. The past ten years witnessed
the encouraging progress in the use of nanoscale drug delivery systems on curcumin such as loading curcumin into liposomes or
nanoparticles, forming self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (SMEDDS), cyclodextrin inclusions, and solid dispersions, as
well as the latest reported technologies such as nadodisks and nanotubes. This paper summarizes the recent works on the design
and development of nanoscale delivery systems of curcumin, with the goal of harnessing the true difficulties of thismultifunctional
agent in the clinical arena.
Journal of Nanomaterials 07/2011; 2011(723178). · 1.38 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Curcumin, a low-molecular-weight natural polyphenol mainly found in the plant Curcuma longa (turmeric), is widely used as a food colorant and as a potential protective agent against several chronic diseases including cancer, HIV-infection, neurological, cardiovascular, and skin diseases. Moreover, evidences from long-term use process and preclinical trials have demonstrated low toxicity of curcumin, even at relatively high doses. However, it has been well known that the application of curcumin was limited owing to its water insolubility, instability, and poor bioavailability. For decades, many attempts have been made to compensate for these disadvantages, with the development of improved delivery platforms as the feasible approaches. The past ten years witnessed the encouraging progress in the use of nanoscale drug delivery systems on curcumin such as loading curcumin into liposomes or nanoparticles, forming self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems (SMEDDS), cyclodextrin inclusions, and solid dispersions, as well as the latest reported technologies such as nadodisks and nanotubes. This paper summarizes the recent works on the design and development of nanoscale delivery systems of curcumin, with the goal of harnessing the true difficulties of this multifunctional agent in the clinical arena.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nanomaterials. 01/2011; 8.
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ABSTRACT: Zedoary turmeric oil and its main active ingredient β-elemene are novel plant-derived anticancer agents with long-term clinical application history and low toxicity, which have been approved by the Chinese SFDA to treat different tumors including cancers of the brain, ovary, prostate, breast, lungs, liver, colon, and other tissues. Unfortunately, their hydrophobic properties, poor stabilities and low bioavailabilities seriously hamper their applications in clinic. Therefore, more attention should be paid to develop novel drug delivery systems for zedoary turmeric oil and β-elemene to enhance their overall quality. Recently, increased research has been carried out on a nanoparticle drug delivery system of zedoary turmeric oil and β-elemene to solve their poor aqueous solubilities and low bioavailabilities in vivo with much remarkable achievements springing up in the last decade. This review presents the novel nanoparticle formulations of zedoary turmeric oil and β-elemene and introduces the possible future prospects of their further study.
The American Journal of Chinese Medicine 39(6):1093-102. · 1.98 Impact Factor
