Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) uses many medicinal herbs to fight against cancer. Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is a religious, medicinal plant that has been researched for its potential use against cancer, due to its properties of inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. Yunnan Biayao is a Chinese medicine developed in the early 1900’s and widely used to treat injuries such as external or internal bleeding, and swelling. It is based on Panax notoginseng, which is known to have cytotoxic properties. Dragon’s Blood (Dracaena cochinensis), known as Xue Jie, has been used in China as a drug to help with skin regeneration after a cut. Dragon’s blood resin contains dracorhodin which induces proapoptotic tumoricidal affects in vitro. It was hypothesized that both Yunnan Biayao and Dragon’s Blood would cause cancer cells to grow, base on their skin regeneration abilities, while ginkgo seeds would kill cancer cells. Ethanol extracts of Yunnan Biayao and Dragon’s Blood increased the growth of MCF7 breast cancer cells. However, ginkgo seed had no effect. Though Ginkgo seed did not work directly on breast cancer cells, it still has shown success in fighting cancer in other studies. However, the results of the tests of Yunnan Biayao and Dragon’ Blood against MCF7 show that, although both treatments have been previously shown to be cytotoxic, they can also make some cancer cells grow.