Indian herb targets pancreatic cancer

A commonly used herbal supplement popular in India could help to target the growth of pancreatic cancer, a new study suggests.

The herb, triphala, is the dried and powdered fruits of three plants and is used to treat intestinal-related problems.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (UP) Cancer Institute used triphala to treat mice with human pancreatic tumours.

The mice were fed one to two milligrams of triphala for five days a week and their tumour size and levels of apoptotic proteins – which help to dispose of damaged, unwanted or unneeded cells – in the tumours were studied.

After being treated with triphala, the scientists found that the mice had increased levels of proteins associated with apoptosis and significantly smaller tumour size in comparison to the control group which was fed a saline solution.

Triphala-treated mice had tumours half the size of those in untreated mice. The herb also activated tumour-suppressing genes, resulting in proteins being created which support apoptosis.

Dr Sanjay Srivastava, lead investigator and assistant professor at the department of pharmacology, UP School of Medicine, said that the results showed triphala was an “extremely effective inhibitor of the cancer process” without causing any toxic side effects.

“With follow-up studies, we hope to demonstrate its potential use as a novel agent for the prevention and treatment of pancreatic cancer,” he added.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Alison Ross, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat so it’s important to try and find new ways to tackle it, but these are early experiments so much more work needs to be done to see if triphala will work in humans.”