Aloe-emodin novel anticancer Herbal Drug Khemkaran Ahirwar1 * Sanmati K. Jain1
Abstract The electrochemical behaviour of the anticancer herbal drug emodin hydroxyanthraquinone present in Aloe vera leaves has a specific in vitro and in vivo antineuroectodermal tumor activity. The compound does not inhibit the proliferation of normal fibroblasts n or that of hemopoietic progenitor cells. The cytotoxicity mechanism consists of the induction of apoptosis, whereas the selectivity against neuroectodermal tumor cells is founded on a specific energy-dependent pathway of drug incorporation. Natural compounds that have traditionally been used to treat a variety of diseases for hundreds of years (1, 2, 3) . We assayed only those natural compounds that have already been proven to be nontoxic, and we evaluated their efficacy against highly malignant tumors that are not normally included in the classical screening assays.
Conclusion: Aloe-Emodin was able to inhibit cell growth in several tumor cells, including human lung carcinoma, 10 hepatoma, 11 and leukemia cell lines. 13 aloe-emodin shows a high specificity for neuroectodermal tumor cells. 14 one of the important approaches for cancer chemotherapy is to regulate cell-cycle progression. G1/S cell-cycle arrest was found in human hepatoma, 12 glioma, 16 breast, 10 lung, 11 and colon 15 carcinoma cells upon treatment of rhubarb anthraquinones (emodin, 9 aloe-emodin, 13 and rhein 16 The herbal medicines have great importance in the treatment of many diseases. Since herbal medicines are mainly used by Chinese, but now gaining acceptance all over the world and mostly in India. Herbal plants and their derivatives are widely used in the treatment of cancer. The treatment of cancer must include the benefits of botanical medicines. There are many classes of plant-derived cytotoxic natural products and the structural modification studies for further improvement and development of drug. New anticancer drugs derived from research on plant antitumor agents will be continuously discovered. The activities of flavonoids and the synergistic action shown by them with other drugs make them ideal in alternative cancer therapies. The chemopreventive effects that most flavonoids exert are likely to be the sum of their effect on several distinct mechanisms working inside the cell. The flavonoids have been focused for the research since 1930’s but many of them have been used in traditional medicines for thousands of years in eastern countries. Anthraquinones are an important group of bioactive components found in many species of medicinal herbs such as rhubarb, senna, aloe and purslane. Induction of apoptosis is commonly reported among emodin and aloe-emodin, which involve disruption of mitochondria membrane potential, cytochrome c release, and activation of caspase 3. Emodin and aloe-emodin were also able to induce cell-cycle arrest, involving an increase in p53 expression level and accompanied by upregulation of p21. This suggests that emodin could be a promising candidature for the research and development of new anti-tumor drugs.
Source : International Journal of Phytomedicine 3 (2011) 27-31 Link to Full Article
A Randomized Study of Chemotherapy Versus Biochemotherapy with Chemotherapy plus Aloe arborescens in Patients with Metastatic Cancer
1Division of Radiation Oncology, St. Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Milan 2Division of Surgery, St. Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Milan, 3Aloe Foundation, Isernia 4.I.N.R.C.A Laboratory of Analysis, Lecco, Italy Abstract Background: The recent advances in the analysis of tumor immunobiology suggest the possibility of biologically manipulating the efficacy and toxicity of cancer chemotherapy by endogenous or exogenous immunomodulating substances. Aloe is one of the of the most important plants exhibiting anticancer activity and its antineoplastic property is due to at least three different mechanisms, based on antiproliferative, immunostimulatory and antioxidant effects. The anti-proliferative action is determined by anthracenic and antraquinonic molecules, while the immunostimulating activity is mainly due to acemannan. Patients and Methods: A study was planned to include 240 patients with metastatic solid tumor who were randomized to receive chemotherapy with or without Aloe. According to tumor histotype and clinical status, lung cancer patients were treated with cisplatin and etoposide or weekly vinorelbine, colorectal cancer patients received oxaliplatin plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), gastric cancer patients were treated with weekly 5-FU and pancreatic cancer patients received weekly gemcitabine. Aloe was given orally at 10 ml thrice/daily. Results: The percentage of both objective tumor regressions and disease control was significantly higher in patients concomitantly treated with Aloe than with chemotherapy alone, as well as the percent of 3-year survival patients. Conclusion: This study seems to suggest that Aloe may be successfully associated with chemotherapy to increase its efficacy in terms of both tumor regression rate and survival time.