HIGHLIGHT ON THE STUDIES OF ANTICANCER DRUGS DERIVED FROM PLANTS IN CHINA

Recent progress on the study of anticancer drugs originating from plan ts in China is reviewed in this paper. Guided by the experience of tra ditional Chinese medicine, several new drugs have been found. Indirubi n from Indigofera tinctoria is useful for the treatment of chronic mye locytic leukemia. Irisquinone from Iris latea pallasii and 10-hydroxy camptothecin from Camptotheca accuminata have exhibited definite activ ity on rodent tumors. Recent studies indicate that ginsenoside Rh-2 is an inducer of cell differentiation in melanoma B-16 cells in vitro. P harmacological studies have demonstrated that curcumin from Curcuma lo nga is an antimutagen as well as an antipromotor for cancer. Daidzein and acetyl boswellic acid have been shown to be effective inducers of cell differentiation in HL-60 cells. Guided by the chemotaxonomic prin ciple of plants, harringtonine and homoharringtonine isolated from Cep halotaxus hainanensis have exhibited significant antileukemia activity and are widely used in clinics in China. Taxol from Taxus chinensis h as been shown to be an important new anticancer drug with unique chemi cal structure and mechanism of action. The continuous search for new a nticancer drugs from plants will be a fruitful frontier in cancer trea tment and chemoprevention.