Collections of reports by medical researchers about herbs that treat leukemia.

How to read this report; Items numbered below are quotes from reputable medical science labs. I do not speculate or provide alternative history of herbs even though their information may be informative they do not have medical science to back up their history. Below you will find doctor scientific research reports. Three dots (...) means I have removed some information to make this page as concise and brief as possible. Each report has a link so you can see the actual full report.

1. "College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Zijin Campus, Hangzhou, China.

Our previous studies showed that the natural compound berbamine, from Chinese herb Berberis amurensis, selectively induces apoptosis of imatinib (IM)-resistant-Bcr/Abl-expressing leukemia cells from the K562 cell line and CML patients...exhibited consistent high anti-tumor activity for imatinib-resistant K562 leukemia cells...In particular, these compounds displayed potent inhibition of the cytoplasm-to-nucleus translocation of NF-kappaB p65 which plays a critical role in the survival of leukemia stem cells. These results suggest that berbamine could be a good starting point for the development of novel lead compounds in the fight against leukemia." PMID: 19285759

2. "Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.

Kaempferia parviflora Wall. ex. Baker is a Thai herb containing many flavonoids that have anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and antioxidant activities. The objective of this study was to demonstrate apoptotic effects of Kaempferia parviflora Wall. ex. Baker rhizome ethanolic extract on HL-60 cells in vitro. The extract suppressed HL-60 cell growth and decreased cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Apoptotic cell death was demonstrated by changes in cell morphology, externalization of phosphatidylserine on the cell surface, loss in mitochondrial transmembrane potential and activation of caspase 3. Apoptosis induced by K. parviflora Wall. ex. Baker rhizome ethanolic extract was enhanced by treatment with paclitaxel or doxorubicin, and inhibitors of Akt, PI3-K and MEK." PMID: 19256745

3. "United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Western Human Nutrition Research Center, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.

Carnosol, from the herb rosemary, has been shown to induce apoptotic cell death in high-risk pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In the present study, carnosol was tested for its ability to sensitize leukemia cells to chemotherapeutic agents. Carnosol reduced the percentage of cell death in the pre-B ALL lines SEM, RS4;11, and REH when combined with cytarabine, methotrexate, or vincristine compared to the chemotherapeutic agents alone. Analysis of DNA strand breaks by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling showed that carnosol delayed DNA cleavage in the cells when combined with chemotherapeutic drugs. Co-treatment of the cells with carnosol and chemotherapeutic drugs did not reduce mitochondrial membrane depolarization compared to the drug treatment alone. Time course analysis of caspase-3 activation by flow cytometry showed co-treatment with carnosol and drugs increased the activation of caspase-3 above that observed for the chemotherapeutic drugs alone. A lower percentage of caspase-3 positive cells progressed to an apoptotic phenotype when co-treated with carnosol and the chemotherapeutic drugs compared to drugs alone. These data show that carnosol blocks the terminal apoptotic events induced by chemotherapeutic drugs and suggest that increased dietary intake of carnosol may potentially decrease the effectiveness of some standard chemotherapy treatments used for leukemia." PMID: 19116879

4. "State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.

Inula helianthus-aquatica C. Y. Wu is a traditional medicinal plant used to treat some cancers in folk herbal medicine of Yunnan, China. Bigelovin, a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from this herb, potently inhibits the growth of a panel of eight cancer cell lines, especially in human monoblastic leukemia U937 cells with an IC(50) value of 0.47 microM. Characteristic morphological features of apoptosis were observed in U937 cells treated with bigelovin. Annexin V and nuclear DNA content distribution assays showed that the percentage of Annexin V positive cells increased to 8.86% (24 h) with 1 microM bigelovin treatment, and cells treated with bigelovin at this concentration apparently arrested at G(0)/G(1) phase compared with the control. These data suggested that cytotoxic effect of bigelovin on U937 cells involves induction of apoptosis, and the cell cycle is arrested at G(0)/G(1) phase. (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd." PMID: 19107858

5. "Division of Pharmacology, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu-Tawi, India.

The essential oil of Tanacetum gracile (Accession no. AT-01 termed AT-01 in the manuscript), a cold desert alpine highly aromatic herb, has 40 constituents including lavendulol (21.5 %), lavendulol acetate (1.7 %), alpha-pinene (11.2 %), 1,8-cineole (15.2 %), CIS-beta-ocimene (6.9 %), borneol (6.1 %), limonene (5.1 %) and chamazulene (3.7 %). AT-01 was evaluated for its anticancer activity. It inhibited HL-60 cell proliferation with an IC (50) of 27 microg/mL. Furthermore, AT-01 induced apoptosis in human leukemia HL-60 cells as measured by several biological end points. AT-01 induced apoptotic body formation, enhanced annexinV-FITC binding of the cells, increased sub-G (0) DNA fraction, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Deltapsi (mt)) and release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, activated caspase-9 as well as caspase-3, and increased cleavage of PARP in HL-60 cells. Thus, AT-01 induced apoptosis through the mitochondrial dependent pathway in HL-60 cells." PMID: 18401843

6. "Wogonin induces the granulocytic differentiation of human NB4 promyelocytic leukemia cells and up-regulates phospholipid scramblase 1 gene expression.

Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Intervention, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.

Previous studies have firmly demonstrated that wogonin, a naturally occurring monoflavonoid extracted from the root of the Chinese herb medicine Scutellaria baicalensis, could effectively inhibit the proliferation of several cancer cell lines. However, little is known about the effect of wogonin on differentiation induction of leukemic cells. Here we investigate the potential role of wogonin in the proliferation and differentiation of NB4, a human promyelocytic leukemia cell line derived from a patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia. Our results indicated that wogonin significantly suppressed the proliferation and efficiently induced the differentiation of NB4 cells. NB4 cell growth was inhibited by 55-60% after treatment with 50 microM wogonin for a period of 5 days..." PMID: 18377421

7. "Enhancement of radiation response with combined Ganoderma lucidum and Duchesnea chrysantha extracts in human leukemia HL-60 cells. (Means they tested the herb along with radiation and found no negative effects.)

Department of Radiation Biology, Nuclear Environmental Safety Research Center, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon 305-353, Korea.

We previously demonstrated that combined treatment with extracts of the medicinal mushroom Ganoderma lucidum and the herb Duchesnea chrysantha (GDE) significantly suppresses cell growth and selectively induces apoptosis in human leukemia HL-60 cells, but not in normal cells. GDE?s mechanism of action and its activity against HL-60 cells suggest that it could be suitable for the combined-modality treatment of hematological malignancies. In the present study, we examined whether treatment with a combination of GDE and ionizing radiation enhances the therapeutic effect. We demonstrated that, when used in combination with radiation at a clinically relevant dose of 2 Gy, GDE further suppressed cell proliferation and induced apoptosis as well as micronuclei formation in HL-60 cells, leading to increased cell death. Furthermore, GDE pretreatment not only reduced radiation-induced G2/M-phase arrest, but also induced G1-phase arrest. These events are associated with the inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) phosphorylation and the dephosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (pRB). Collectively, these data show that combined treatment with GDE and radiation enhances radiation-induced apoptosis and overall cell death. These findings may be clinically relevant and suggest a novel therapeutic strategy for increasing the efficacy of radiotherapy." PMID: 18360695

8. "New England Journal of Medicine: "Background All-trans-retinoic acid induces complete remission in acute promyelocytic leukemia. However, it is not clear whether induction therapy with all-trans-retinoic acid is superior to chemotherapy alone or whether maintenance treatment with all-trans-retinoic acid improves outcome." http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/15/1021

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