Old-fashioned remedies get new life

Some cures do grow on trees -- or in roots, researchers are finding.

There they are, right before our eyes, though hidden in nature -- remedies for all sorts of ills, from diabetes to cancer to canker sores.

In the past few months, researchers have reported success with compounds from two common trees and an old familiar root. Like many new drug candidates in recent years, several of the compounds are derived from traditional herbal medicines used in some cultures for thousands of years.

But getting a product moved from "dietary supplement" status to a drug approved for use against one or more specific medical conditions requires a long journey through chemical analysis, animal and human tests to establish safe dosage, and then several rounds of controlled studies to confirm benefits to patients.

Scientists at Emory University in Atlanta are about halfway down that path with honokiol, a natural compound made from magnolia tree cones that, lab tests have shown, blocks a pathway for cancer growth that until now was considered impossible to attack with drugs.

Dr. Jack Arbiser, a professor at Emory's School of Medicine, and colleagues at several institutions, published the latest findings in the July issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research. Arbiser has been working with the compound since 2003, when he discovered its ability to inhibit tumor growth in mice.

The compound in particular seems able to block survival signals from a particular set of genes found in breast, lung and bladder cancer cells. When activated, the genes stimulate pumps in the cancer cells that remove chemotherapy drugs from the cells before they're destroyed.

While extract of magnolia tree cones has been used in Japanese and Chinese herbal medicines, the work is the first to use it directly against human cancer cells in the lab.

"We think honokiol could be effective as a way to make tumors more sensitive to traditional chemotherapy," Arbiser said. "Knowing more about how it works tells us what kinds of cancer to go after."

Emory is in the process of licensing honokiol and related compounds so they can be tested in humans.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis VA Hospital recently tested a mulberry leaf extract on 20 patients and found it helped Type 2 diabetics stabilize blood sugar levels and lower post-meal blood sugar spikes. One study, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, showed an average 44 percent reduction in post-meal blood sugar spikes.

Mulberry leaf has long been used as a food seasoning in India and as a Chinese herbal medicine, thought to help remove excessive "heats" and toxins from the body.

The extract tested was developed by Dr. Lee Zhong and is already sold as a dietary supplement by a San Diego firm, Neuliven Health. Earlier studies have shown there are several substances in mulberry leaves that help inhibit a key enzyme involved in metabolizing carbohydrates and sugars.

Zhong said that the extract could help Type 2 diabetics who are currently trying to manage blood sugar levels mainly through diet and exercise, but still struggle with fluctuations around mealtime, although experts stress that patients should not add the supplement to their treatment plan without discussing it with their doctor or dietitian.

Then there's licorice root extract. This is no candy, but a strong, even bitter medicine that, up to the 1970s, was often prescribed to treat stomach ulcers.

In a recent issue of the journal General Dentistry, Dr. Michael Martin of the University of Washington and colleagues showed that small adhesive patches providing a time-released dose of licorice extract works well against another sort of ulcer -- canker sores.

The sores -- often the result of an accidental bite or scrape inside the mouth, but also caused by some foods, allergies, and drugs -- are typically treated with over-the-counter liquids or gels, or with mouthwash. But they hurt like crazy and often linger for days and weeks.

Martin found patients who used the patches for seven days had little or no pain after three days and significantly reduced the size of ulcers compared to a control group that didn't get treated.

On the Net:

Agd.org

Care.diabetesjournals.org

(Reach Lee Bowman at bowmanl(at)shns.com)