Tacca Chantrieri - Bat Plant May Have Cancer Fighting Power
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 15:20
in Health & Medicine
Researchers have pinpointed the cancer-fighting potential in the bat plant, or Tacca chantrieri.Susan Mooberry, Ph.D., leader of the Experimental Development Therapeutics Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has been working to isolate substances in the plant in hopes of finding a new plant-derived cancer drug with the potential of Taxol. Taxol, the first microtubule stabilizer derived from the Yew family, has been an effective chemotherapy drug, but patients eventually develop problems with resistance over time and toxicity at higher doses. Researchers have long been seeking alternatives. read more