A brief review on the experimental aspects of bojungikki-tang in cancer

Abstract

Bojungikki-tang (BJIKT, Hochuekkito in Japanese, Bu-zhong-yi-qi-tang in Chinese) has been widely used as a traditional herbal formula in Korea, Japan, and China to improve the function of digestive systems, the quality of life and nutritional status. Currently there are numerous basic and clinical studies to find anticancer drugs from herbal medicine. Modern biomolecular tools and approaches have contributed to understand the role and mechanism of action of herbal medicine that exhibited anticancer activity. BJIKT have also gained much attention in recent years as adjuvant treatment for cancer. This review will introduce the experimental approaches to understand the pharmacological actions of BJIKT and overview the potential for cancer treatment.