DNC News

 

Essiac Abstracts

Oncol Rep. 2004 Feb;11(2):471-6.

In vitro comparison of Essiac and Flor-Essence on human tumor cell lines.

 

Tai J, Cheung S, Wong S, Lowe C.

 

Center for Complementary Medicine Research, BC Research Institute for Children's and Women's Health, Room L306, 4480 Oak Street , Vancouver , British Columbia V5Z 4H4 , Canada . jtai@interchange.ubc.ca

 

Essiac (ES) and Flor-Essence (FE) are two herbal teas widely taken by North American cancer patients during chemo- and radiation therapy. In vitro studies on the antiproliferative and differentiation inducing activities of these teas were performed. ES and FE showed negligible antiproliferative activity on Jurkat leukemia cells. Both herbal teas inhibited 50% (IC50) of MCF7 breast cancer cell growth at 1/10 dilution. The IC50 was about 1/40 and 1/10 dilution of FE and ES respectively for MDA-MB-468 human breast cancer cells. The IC50 for HL60 cells was at 1/10 dilution of FE and less than 1/10 dilution of ES. ES at 1/10 dilution induced expression of non-specific esterase in 16% of HL60 cells, compared to about 5% in FE treated cells and untreated controls. ES treatment of HL60 cells induced 47-67% nitroblue tetrazolium positive staining cells compared to 24.6+/-3.1% in cells treated with 1/10 dilution of FE. Flow cytometry analysis showed that both ES and FE treatment between 1/10 and 1/100 dilutions only slightly affected the cell cycle progression of MCF7, MDA-MB-468, Jurkat and HL60 cells. Our data show that both ES and FE herbal teas demonstrated antiproliferative and differentiation inducing properties in vitro only at high concentrations. Further research is needed to elucidate the in vivo activities.

 

PMID: 14719086 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Treatmentupdate. 1998 Jul;10(5):4-5.

 

Essiac for cancer?

 

[Article in English, French]

 

[No authors listed]

 

AIDS: An analysis of a mixture of herbs in Essiac, an alternative-medicine anti-cancer therapy, has shown it contains a variety of compounds which have antioxidant activity as well as the ability to block cell growth. The Essiac mixture contains burdock root, Indian rhubarb, sheep sorrel, inner bark of slippery elm, watercress, blessed thistle, red clover, and kelp. A review of patients taking Essiac shows that there was no obvious toxicity. Clinical trials are recommended to determine Essiac's efficacy.

 

Publication Types:

Newspaper Article

 

PMID: 11365626 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 


................................................................
Hey! You're getting these newsletters either because you've signed up to be on the list or because we took the liberty of putting you on.  If you want your name removed simply leave a message at the office (303-337-4884) or go to the website: denvernaturopathic.com and unsubscribe, or reply with the message "REMOVE" in the subject line.  If on the other hand you want to be added to the mailing list follow the prior instructions but subscribe. We are finally trying to keep up with our website and are posting most of these newsletters in our 'archive' section.  Frequently we also post abstracts of references quoted for the intellectually curious.

 

Ask the Doctor:
What's the difference between naturopathy and homeopathy?

[click here for the answer]

Submit your question here.


Newsletter:
Enter your email to recieve the latest Health and Wellness newsletters from the clinic.