Friday 26 August 2016

India BARC team develops cancer drugs with herbs, spices

MUMBAI: A green revolution is underway at one of the world's longest laboratories located deep inside BARC's Anushakti Nagar complex near Chembur. Scientists are using Indian herbs and spices to develop anti-cancer and other drugs that will be affordable and have fewer side-effects.
Rampatri— better known as `false nutmeg' and widely used in Goan and Mangalorean cuisine—is a case in point. Scientists from BARC's bioscience group have developed a chemotherapeutic drug that has, in studies on mice, shown potency against lung cancer and neuroblastoma (a rare pediatric cancer in which cancer cells grow in the nerve cells of the adrenal glands, neck, chest, and spinal cord). 
Herbal drugs have fewer or no side-effects and are less expensive. "Moreover, the phytochemicals we develop as adjuvant drugs enhance the efficacy of other drugs and boosts the immune system to minimize the drug dosage," Dr Chattopadhyay said.

MORE

No comments:

Post a Comment