Professors Henry Lai and Narendra Singh are the pioneer scientists in examining Artemisinin’s anti-cancer properties. Their work has issued a new and exciting route in the area of anti-cancer treatment. Huge amount of research and effort are still taking place.
Artemisinin is a herbal remedy that has been serving as a successful malaria treatment for over a decade now to millions of people. For centuries it has been used as a parasitic infections treatment to kill parasites like worms and flukes. The recipe includes extracts of wormwood, a leafy herb that ancients used as a cure for malaria and hemorrhoids as well as a parasitic infections treatment. In fact the World Health Organisation recognise Artemisinin as being more effective than any other current malaria treatment drug.
Many doctors have embarked on using Artemisinin in a less conventional way through the treatment of cancer. Cancer cells require iron to facilitate their aggressive growth. For this reason cancer cells are able to absorb a considerable quantity of iron than normal healthy cells. Artemisinin’s contact with iron within the cancer cells activates a chemical reaction to produce free radicals. Avalanches of free radicals are able to tackle cancer cell membranes breaking them down to eventually destroy them. This is the reason why Artemisinin is extremely toxic towards cancer cells as they are abundant in iron which sets off a destructive reaction. Artemisinin is obtained from a naturally occurring botanical that kills cancer cells rapidly whilst showing little or virtually no toxicity towards healthy cells.
Studies reveal how Artemisinin is able to destroy 55 cancer cell lines. In particular it has shown to be successful against cancer cells of lung, leukemia, fibrosarcomas and breasts amongst others. Remarkably these studies have also shown how Artemisinin has even destroyed cancers that were otherwise resistant to chemotherapy.
