Herbal Arnica, the Potential Colon Cancer Functional Herb

Herb Arnica may be the next target of the pharmaceutical companies to identify a single ingredient medicine for the treatment of colon cancer, some scientists suggested.

Colon cancer is a slow and predictable condition characterized by irregular cell growth on the colon tissue.

The cause of colon cancer is a result of the alternation of DNA of the cells in the colon.

Most cases of colon cancer start at the cells on the surface of the inner lining of the colon tissue. At this stage, the tumor is very small and does not cause any symptoms.

However, at the later stage, colon cancer may cause symptoms of a change of bowel habits, severe rectal bleeding or blood in your stool and persistently abdominal pain.

If you experience some of the above symptoms that last more than 4 weeks, please check with your doctor to rule out the possibility of colon cancer.

According to the statistic, the 5-year survival rate of people with localized stage colorectal cancer is 90% and only 39% of patients are diagnosed at this early stage.

Researchers do not know why people with the same health condition, family history and diet pattern, some are susceptible to colon cells DNA alternation while others do not.

Out of a number of risk factors, genetic preposition has been under intensifying studies by many scientists.

Dr.Glaser EM in a finding the genetic mutation associated with the risk colon cancer said, "Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the United States. Although both genetic and environmental factors play a role in colorectal tumorigenesis" and "single genes that confer susceptibility to familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Because these genes are inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion, offspring of carriers have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene mutation and its associated risk".

The genetic mutation hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC).genes has a prevalence rate of 1 in 500, and causes about 2% to 3% of all colorectal cancers.

More importantly, genetic testing for the FAP and HNPCC genes is now available for everyone.


Arnica is a herbaceous species, genus perennial, belonging to the family Asteraceae, native to Europe and Asia.

The plant has been used in herbal medicine for centuries to treat strains, sprains, and bruises.
Colon Cancer is defined as a condition of the abnormal proliferation of cells in the colon.

Besides containing contain helenalin as it main ingredient used as an anti-inflammatory agent in herbal medicine, herbal Arnica also contains 11,13- dihydrohelenaline, chamissonolid, Sesquiterpene lactone, lignans of the furofuran, dibenzylbutyrolactone, dibenzylbutyrolactol types, pinoresinol, epipinoresinol, phillygenin, matairesinol, nortrachelogenin, and nortracheloside, six dibenzylbutyrolactol derivatives.

In the concerns of the aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and colon-rectal mucosal epithelial cell proliferation in patients with colon cancer, researchers at the University of São Paulo examine the anti-colon cancer of chemical compound isolated from the Lychnophora ericoides Mart. (Brazilian herbal arnica).

50 included in the study was randomly assigned to the followings Fifty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups.
* The groups G1 to G4 were given 4 injections of the carcinogen 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH).

* The G2 group received Lychnophora ericoides (LE) extracts for 6 wks.

* The groups G3 and G4 received LE for 4 wk and 2 wk, respectively, at the postinitiation and initiation phases of colonic carcinogenesis.

* The group G5 was the control.

42 days after the first injections of DMH for the neoplastic induction, researchers found that
* Groups G1 demonstrated an increase of the number of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and cancer cells proliferation induced by DMH.

* Group G4 after treatment of LE inhibited a clinically significant decrease in the number of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and attenuated the increase of cancer cells proliferation induced by DMH.

These results suggested that Lychnophora ericoides extracts were effective against the development of colon cancer through suppressing the initiation and progression of colonic carcinogenesis.


Continuously, to differentiate the effect of herbal Arnica effects in the inhibition of cancers, researchers examine the cytotoxicity of 21 flavonoids and 5 sesquiterpene lactones, isolated from herbal Arnica in a human small cell lung carcinoma cell line, and in COLO 320, a human colorectal cancer cell line.

Compared to cisplatin, a novel chemo drug, most flavonoids showed moderate to low cytotoxicity against COLO 320 cancer cell line.

However, flavone jaceosidin of the sesquiterpene lactones was found to be the most effective compound.in displaying the cytotoxicity.

Application of the maximum half-life concentration of 1.0 microM exerted the most cytotoxic effect against COLO 320.

Compared to GLC4, COLO 320 was more sensitive than for many flavonoids (especially for flavones).

The finding strongly indicated that herbal Arnica bioactive compounds process potential activity in inhibiting the onset and progression of colon cancer.


Therefore, herbal Arnica containing abundant bioactive compounds may have a potential in reducing risk and treatment of colon cancer, depending on the confirmation of the large sample size and multicenter in the human study.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) The protective role of Lychnophora ericoides Mart. (Brazilian arnica) in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced experimental colon carcinogenesis by Fernandes CR, Turatti A, Gouvea DR, Gobbo-Neto L, Diniz A, Ribeiro-Silva A, Lopes NP, Garcia SB.(PubMed)
(2) Cytotoxicity of flavonoids and sesquiterpene lactones from Arnica species against the GLC4 and the COLO 320 cell lines by Woerdenbag HJ, Merfort I, Passreiter CM, Schmidt TJ, Willuhn G, van Uden W, Pras N, Kampinga HH, Konings AW.(PubMed)
(3) Inherited predisposition to colon cancer by Glaser EM. (PubMed)