Ganoderma lucidum, Salvia miltiorrhiza and Scutellaria barbata
A novel combination of Chinese medicines to treat advanced cancers and lymphomas in rats Dawn N Waterhouse Department of Advanced Therapeutics, BC Cancer Research Centre, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1L3, Canada
Chinese medicine often targets more than one system and as such comprises several compounds, often in non-purified form, with treatments therefore consisting of whole extracts of herbs rather than isolated compounds. The additive and synergistic effects of the phytochemicals in OMN54, a novel mixture of extracts from three commonly used Chinese medicine components; Ganoderma lucidum, Salvia miltiorrhiza and Scutellaria barbata, were previously demonstrated to have potent anti-cancer activity. This study aims to test whether this heterogeneous, multifunctional and multitargeted agent has an acceptable toxicity profile.
Conclusion OMN54 was found to be well tolerated in rat models. OMN54 did not cause any microscopic, anatomic or pathologic changes in exposed animals at the concentrations and under the conditions employed in this study.