An assistant professor of biology at Western Kentucky University in Owensboro is looking at the use of plants to treat cancer.
Chandra Emani is testing basil, ginger, fresh tobacco leaves and neem, a plant common in Asian countries.
“And with all the plants which I’m using, basil, ginger, neem and tobacco, what I’m seeing is that they’re affecting cancers across the board: tested them against colon cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia," said Emani.
Emani said he’s also doing lab tests of a “cocktail” that combines the extracts.
“At the lab level what we do is we take these cell cultures, cancer cell cultures, and growth them on plates and when we incubate these cultures with the plant extracts, we see that the tumor growth within 48 hours, we see that the tumor growth within is being suppressed by 50 percent," said Emani.
He said it usually takes about five years for required testing and clinical trials until a new treatment is approved. He said another option he’s looking in to, is having the “cocktail” of extracts approved as a complementary dietary treatment, to reduce some of the side effects of chemotherapy. He said that option could approved in about two years.
