Recent progress of traditional chinese medicine and herbal medicine for the treatment and prevention of cancer

Abstract

TCM represents the enormous accumulation of daily experiences in medical practice by the Chinese people from ancient time. The description of the therapeutic usage in classic books of Chinese materia medica are informative even today, for example, Angelica sinensis ameliorates menstruation disorder and Artemisia annua is effective against malaria. All these therapeutic effects have been confirmed by contemporary scientific research. Chemical, pharmacological and clinical studies published in recent years have demonstrated that Chinese materia medica and TCM afford a valuable approach for the research and development of new antineoplastic drugs as illustrated by the example of indirubin from Danggui Longhui Wan and irisquinone from Iris latea. It seems that there is a good opportunity to explore chemopreventive agents for cancer as illustrated by red ginseng, Curcuma longa and Recipe "Antitumor B". The research and development of anti-invasion and anti-metastasis agents for cancer is of critical importance and urgent needs. In addition to Fagopyrum cymosum the continuous search for drugs for the prevention and treatment of cancer metastasis will be the important frontier of cancer research. The application of Chemotaxonomic principle of related species of plants in reference of the experiences of TCM and folk medicine has furnished an alternative approach for the development of new anticancer drugs. The studies of Cephalotaxus hainanensis and Taxus chinensis provide two typical examples in this field. © 1995 The Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Press.