Flower power fights cancer
2009-06-17 22:09
Goettingen - A substance from the root of a flower growing in many gardens may cure prostate cancer, Germany's cancer-science council said on Wednesday.
The lily-like flowers of Belamcanda chinensis are grown in temperate-region gardens as a perennial. In China it grows wild. The plant is used in Korean and Chinese medicine.
In laboratory tests, tectorigenin, obtained from roots of Belamcanda chinensis, stopped cancer cells growing and in animal tests it had slowed the spread of the cancer, experts said at the University of Goettingen.
Cancer of the prostate gland is the most common cancer among German men.
The scientists, Peter Burfeind and Paul Thelen, are to continue the research. They it might also be possible to use the substance as preventive medicine to stop men developing the cancer in the first place.
- SAPA