Artemisinin has been used in Chinese folk remedies for thousands of years as a cure for malaria. Because of the nature of this chemical to attack and
destroy cells with a higher iron content (such as the malaria virus and cancer cells) than normal, healthy cells in the human body, it has been proven
an effective remedy in laboratory tests. Outside of the US, it is often used as a malaria cure, and shows no risk of long term toxic effects. In
laboratory tests with cancer cells, Artemisinin has killed 75% of the cancer cells in a sample within eight hours, and within 24 hours has shown a
100% destruction of these cells. All of this without any damage to healthy cells also present in the tests.
www.sciencedaily.com
Research Professor Henry Lai and assistant research Professor Narendra Singh have exploited the chemical properties of a wormwood derivative to
target breast cancer cells, with surprisingly effective results. A study in the latest issue of the journal Life Sciences describes how the derivative
killed virtually all human breast cancer cells exposed to it within 16 hours.
“Not only does it appear to be effective, but it’s very selective,” Lai said. “It’s highly toxic to the cancer cells, but has a marginal
impact on normal breast cells.”
The compound, artemisinin, isn’t new. It apparently was extracted from the plant Artemesia annua L., commonly known as wormwood, thousands of years
ago by the Chinese, who used it to combat malaria. However, the treatment was lost over time. Artemisinin was rediscovered during an archaeological
dig in the 1970s that unearthed recipes for ancient medical remedies, and has become widely used in modern Asia and Africa to fight the mosquito-borne
disease.
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Having read several articles on this from several different sources, this seems to be quite a viable alternative to the more expensive, more toxic
cancer treatments currently available. Wormwood, the plant that artemisinin is derived from, has long been used as a folk remedy, and is widely
available from from any herbal or homeopathic shop, and is not controlled by the FDA, though it also has not been approved as a cancer treatment.
Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk
www.biomedcentral.com
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov