Saturday, July 25, 2009

Noscapine Can be Used for Prostate Cancer Natural Treatment.


Noscapine is an alkaloid occurring in opium that suppresses the cough reflex and is used as an antitussive. Noscapine is currently under investigation for use in the treatment of several cancers and hypoxic ischemia in stroke patients. In cancer treatment, noscapine appears to interfere with microtubule function, and thus the division of cancer cells in a way similar to the taxanes. Early studies in treatment of prostate cancer are very promising.


Anti-Cancer Drugs from Plants


Cancer, one of the most dreaded diseases, continues to spread with increasing incidence. Statisticians estimate that over 10 million new cases of cancer appeared worldwide, with over 6 million deaths in the year 2000. Since 1990 cancer incidence and mortality have increased 22% based on information until 2003; the four most frequently occurring cancers are lung, breast, colorectal, and stomach, and the four most deadly comprise lung, stomach, liver, and colorectal cancers. Only cardiovascular disease surpasses cancer, the second leading cause of death in the United States.

Of all available anti-cancer drugs developed from 1940 to 2002, 40% were natural products or natural-product-derived with another 8% considered natural-product mimics. Plant anti-cancer agents currently in clinical use can be categorised into four main classes of compounds: vinca (or Catharanthus) alkaloids, epipodophyllotoxins, taxanes, and camptothecins. Taxanes and camptothecins alone accounted for approximately one-third of the global anti-cancer market in 2002, with a market value of over US$2.75 billion. Noscapine is a natural non-toxic chemical derived from the poppy plant.

A study just published in the December issue of the European medical journal Anticancer Research demonstrates for the first time a naturally-occurring substance used as a cough suppressant for over fifty years may be useful in treating advanced prostate cancer. Researchers from the Prostate Cancer Research and Educational Foundation, the MedInsight Research Institute, and the University of California in San Diego found that noscapine, a non-addictive derivative of opium, reduced tumor growth in mice by 60%. What's more, it halted the spread of tumors by 65% and caused no harmful side effects.

Although noscapine is only approved for use in many countries as a cough suppressant, physicians can and do sometimes prescribe it for other uses -- this is a common practice known as "off-label" prescription. Increasingly, in fact, noscapine has been tried off-label to treat several forms of cancer. Dr. Israel Barken, founder and medical director of the Prostate Cancer Research and Educational Foundation in San Diego, used noscapine to successfully treat several prostate cancer patients before he retired from clinical practice. He was so encouraged by the results that his prostate cancer foundation funded the study reported in Anticancer Research .

Moshe Rogosnitzky, director of research at MedInsight Research Institute in San Diego and one of the study's co-investigators, explained in a statement to the media that noscapine appears to have several advantages as a treatment for prostate cancer. "Noscapine is effective without the unpleasant side effects associated with other common prostate cancer treatments. Because noscapine has been used as a cough-suppressant for nearly half a century, it already has an extensive safety record. This pre-clinical study shows that the dose used to effectively treat prostate cancer in the animal model was also safe," he stated.

Other study also show, noscapine was found to have “potent anti-tumour activity” against human breast and bladder cancer implanted into rats. It has also been shown to kill glioblastoma, melanoma, and taxane-resistant ovarian cancer.

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VIDEO TELL THE INGREDIENT OF NONI FRUIT:

Dr. Ralph Heinicke pioneered the study of the alkaloid Xeronine. Xeronine is produce in the body from the building blocks Proxeronine and Proxeronase. These building blocks are abundant in the juice of the Morinda citrifolia fruit.
Xeronine is a relatively small alkaloid that is physiologically active in the picogram range. (Editorial note: a picogram is one trillionth of a gram.) It occurs in practically all healthy cells of plants, animals and microorganisms. However, the amount of free alkaloid is minute, and is well below the limits of normal chemical analytical techniques.