Varanasi,  A drug extracted from the bark of a commonly found tree has been found having the potential to cure liver cancer, according Indian researchers.

The experimental drug developed from the extract of Acacia nilotica tree, which is known as babool in local parlance, has shown efficacy against cancer cells when tested on rats.

Researchers at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), in the Indian city of Allahabad, who conducted the study with funding from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, claim that the babool bark extract drug could prevent hepatocellular carcinoma, also called liver cancer.

The babool tree has six compounds with strong potential to prevent and cure cancer and various other ailments.
The chemical compounds isolated from the methanolic extract of the bark of Acacia nilotica or babool tree stimulates the body's anti-oxidant defence system and play an essential role in prevention and therapy of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neuro-degenerative diseases and inflammation.

The Banaras Hindu University research team inducted liver cancer in rats by injecting them with cancer causing drugs such as N-nitrosodiethylamine, a potent hepatocarcinogenic and is present in tobacco smoke, water, cheese, fried meals and in a number of alcoholic beverages.

BHU researchers studied the properties of babool tree bark extract for almost four years in the Mycology and Plant Pathology Department of the BHU. The study has been supervised by
The Indian babool tree has more cancer preventive phytomolecules (antioxidant polyphenolic compounds) than the Australian babool. Indian babool tree also stabilises and increases all the components of the defense gene pools.

The babool bark extract abolishes the activities of liver injury and tumor markers by decreasing the damage to bio-molecules such as DNA, RNA, lipids and proteins that are essential for life, the researchers found.

"It's a path-breaking finding among cancer studies. For the first time, our research has established a link between babool phytomolecules and cancer prevention," stated professor H B Singh, who superwised the studies at HBU.

The researchers published the findings of the study last year in the online US journal - Chemico-Biological Interactions.

Now the researchers are conducting studies on the role of babool in cancer therapy by reactivating tumor suppressor genes at various stage of the disease.

Source: DWS Pill Scribe