Last Thursday Chilean researchers annouced they have isolated anti-carcinogenic compounds in a indigenous medicinal plant used traditional to treat an upset stomach that they believe can be used to eventual fight brain cancer in humans.
Led by Dr. Rolando Martinez of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia along with researchers from the Universidad Andres Bello and doctors from the Barros Luco Hospital, the project will move into an advance stage treating lab animals with brain cancer and then humans.
Martinez and his team focused on isolating anti- carcinogenic chemicals in the Leptocarpha rivularis, used by the Mapuche to treat an upset stomach, to attack cancer cells. Research using the plant has shown the natural derivatives force proteins from the cancerous cells to start a process that corrects the infected cell’s DNA. Moreover tests have shown the compound has no impact on healthy cells.
The first two phases of the project, conducted over the last twenty years, focused first on creating brain cancer among lab rats and then treating it with the compound. The second phase then focused on liver cancer among terminally ill volunteers. The third phase will focus on Chilean patients with brain cancer.
Researchers, however, expect more complications from the third phase due to the limited amount of people with brain cancer in Chile willing to participate in such a study.
Leptocarpha rivularis is a plant known in Chile as “palo negro”, stands at a meter and a half and is found in the south of Chile. The plant has been used for generations by the Mapuche people, one of Chile’s last surviving indigenous groups.
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