Surveying studies on antitumor active Chinese plants

Research Project

Project/Area Number	05042002
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for international Scientific Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	Special Cancer Research
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	IKEKAWA Tetsuro Professor, Life Science Laboratory, Department of Education, Kanazawa University, 教育学部, 教授 (20168115)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	馮威健中国河北医学院, 副教授巌述常中国中医研究院, 中薬研究所, 教授 OHKAWA Masanori Professor, Department of Education, Kanazawa University, 教育学部, 教授 (10023475) FENG Weijing Assistant Professor, Heibei Medical College, China YAN Schuchang Professor, Chinese Medical Academy, Insitute of material Medica, China
Project Period (FY)	1993
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1993)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000) Fiscal Year 1993: ¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Keywords	Chinese medicines / Chinese plant / Rui Xian Lang Du / Antitumor activity / Gnidimacrin / Stelleramacrin
Research Abstract	We isolated new antitumor agents from Stellera chamejasme L. called Rui Xian Lang Du in Chinese or Zuikou Rou Doku in Japanese. They are daphnane series of diterpene compounds which are gnidimacrin and stellamacrin and the former is a known, but the latter a novel compound. They have strong antitumor activity and gnidimacrin showed 79% of ILS(Increase in life span) against murine leukemia P388 at a dose of 0.02mg/kg and stelleramacrin did 70% at 0.5mg/kg. Gnidimacrin has also strong activity against solid tumors, and shows significantly high inhibitory activity against human cancer cell lines approximately one hundred times as high as adriamycin, though it was dependent on a kind of cell lines. In this study it was found that these antitumor compounds could be also isolated from surface parts of the plant and it would be able to collected with a large amount in area of the Lake Quinghai in Quinghai Providence, China. In Chengdu, Shuchan Providence, an information could be gotten that it grew gregariously in Southern part of the Providence. So it is concluded for us to collect a large amount of source materials of our antitumor agents in order to carry out a developmental study. Dr.Weijing Feng, our co-worker came to Japan to study on the antitumor activity of extracts of Chinese plants and discuss on Chinese plants from September to November, 1993. Prof. Schuchang Yan, our co-worker came to our laboratory of Kanazawa and discussed useful Chinese herbs February, 1994.