(Newswire.net — January 14, 2015) — According to a new study, published in an issue of Life Sciences, artemesinin – a derivative of the wormwood plant used in Chinese Medicine – can kill 98% of breast cancer cells in less than 16 hours. The study said the herb used alone caused a 28 percent reduction in breast cancer cells, however, when mixed with iron, sweet wormwood derivate called artemisin was able to eliminate cancer almost entirely, targeting cancer cells exclusively. In comparison, chemotherapy (cytostatic) targets all cells in the body, which negatively affects healthy cells.
According to Natural Society Internet magazine, sweet wormwood was used in the past as a powerful anti-malarial herb. Today, the sweet wormwood derivate artemisinin has been proven a strong immune buster that efficiently fights breast cancer.
The study explains that Iron accumulates in cancerous cells due to special receptors that help them in cell division, called transferrin receptors. Therefore, when Iron is given together with artemisinin it delivers the cure directly into the cancer cell, which dissolves instead of multiplying. That process of cell auto-destruction is called apoptosis.
“Taken together, our results demonstrate that the artemisinin disruption of the E2F1 transcription factor expression mediates the cell cycle arrest of human breast cancer cells and represents a critical transcriptional pathway by which artemisinin controls human reproductive cancer cell growth.”
The extract has been used for thousands of years in China to treat malaria, but bioengineers Henry Lai and Narendra Singh of the University of Washington, Seattle were the scientists who initially made the discovery that ancient the Chinese remedy could be a cure to breast cancer. This is yet another example of a natural herb causing cancerous cell apoptosis, the study concludes.
The down side is that sweet wormwood extract ‘artemisinin’ ih hard to obtain for mass production.
“It’s the volatility that really makes the supply chain for this life-saving drug just a complete train wreck,” says Jack Newman, chief scientific officer of the California-based biotech firm Amyris.
Bio-pharmaceutical companies, however, are reaching for the global market. According to Nature Society, French drug-maker Sanofi is expected to make 50 to 60 tons of artemisinin each year.