a plant extract with tested potency
 

I had put it in another post but thought it deserved a full thread. Scutellaria barbata D. Don a simple plant extract is being tested in trial under the name of Bezielle, it sounds like a drug but I did read the methodology of the paper and it is simply a plant extract.

Really NOT BAD AT ALL for something that has no toxic effect check the result. Since May 11 I no longer can buy this extract in Europe, but China yet again will be the place to go.. shame as trust less the quality indeed


Results of the preliminary trial:

21 women with metastatic breast cancer enrolled.
On average, the group of women enrolled to the trial had been on 4 prior treatments for metastatic disease prior to starting Bezielle therapy.
16 women on the trial were evaluable for response:
4 women had stable disease >90 days
3 women had stable disease for >180 days
1 woman was 1 mm short of a partial remission

http://www.bzl101.com/

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

FOB
I had read this when posted earlier.One of the problems with the current EU regs is the need to source products from abroad. This carries the risks of not only poor quality but in some cases dangerous substances.

Maybe the sceptics are right that we are in the middle of a conspiracy by those whose interests are not in a cure but in large profits!!

Wishing you all the best.
Ellie

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

You misunderstand me : I am not a conspiracy theorist.. please I find it slightly offending.

But I "follow the money" and profit margin: if we only cared about the quality (as per your comment) all that would be required from the supplement industry is to produce GMP products (which i agree with), why the initial registration cost not affordable by the small company? The supplement sale is worth billions, plants are medicine.


There are many philanthropist and good researchers that are looking to make our life better, I agree. But there are also a monopoly of hiddeously powerful few that have little interest to lose the sale of their current products and over regulation and high and slow develppement cost is a way to slow down progress, that is my view. FDA can take years to approve a research protocole (as experienced by some university researchers).. what small biotech can afford that cost? Putting barrier of entries of high cost is not making our life better. And yes sorry I believe we could have been driving cars that did not run on petrol a long time ago.. but no I do not hug trees..

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

FOB
Please re-read what I posted.

You have clearly misunderstood.
I DID NOT suggest YOU were a conspiracy theorist rather that there is a body of people that believe that for SOME profits are the most important driver and lobbying of politicians by those with huge resources to tighten regulations often means that smaller companies are unable to complete against the big few.

I am dismayed that there are now major restrictions on supplements and companies have to jump through many hoops now. In this regard I am persuaded by the views of the nutritional researchers from Imperial College London university who believe that supplements are not only necessary but essential to stay healthy as our diets are NOW so lacking in micronutrients.My reference to 'dangerous' substances relates to contamination of some 'natural' products for example some TCM's with heavy metals.

I did NOT understand the reference to 'tree huggers' as I can find no reference to it in my post and would NOT use such offensive language.

Ellie

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

Ellie,

We are in the same boat and team mates. I guess my current situation and constant battle to get treatments (and not simply just more chemo or nothing) is exhausting emotionally and financially is making me susceptible and quick to react to perceived criticism.

Lets hope that the Eu decision is reversed, all we need is the supplement market to be GMP approved which guarantee the purity/potency of the product one should have the freedom to buy what they wished to heal themselves. In 97 a company tried to patent tumeric.. it was not allowed due to a long history of use but future discovery (and current as the example above)that could be used there and then (and cheap and often better in natural form) may not be so lucky, it sadden me, conspiracy theory is often used to ridicule & dismiss the people that are standing up against this.

As an example the video below will let you know where I am coming from:
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-w...g-to-monsanto/

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

Hi Full of Beans
Really sorry to read in your other post that you are having a tough time at present.I was also upset that you had again to go abroad for more treatment rather than being able to get it on the NHS here.

Thanks for the link, I will take a look.
Ellie

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

Thanks Full of Beans. It is always good to learn about posibilities. Please feel free to share information whenever you come across something you think we might be interested in seeing.
Todays scientific experiments and clinical trials may be the standard of care in the future.
Several chemotherapies we are familiair with were developed from plants and other natural things-------------Taxol, Taxotere, Abraxane (Pacific Yew Tree), Navelbine (Madagascar Periwinkle Plant), Halaven (Sea Sponges). There are also others.
I rememer environmentalists were very upset when scientists were using bark from the Pacific Yew Tree to study during the development of Taxol. I remember thinking even though it was destroying trees it might save lives. Taxol is now one of the most widely used breast cancer "drugs".
Other common drugs were developed from plant sources. One that comes to mind is asprin. The original souce was the bark of the willow tree.
Sometimes when governments and large drug companies do not have the funding to do studies smaller or lesser known companies jump in and complete the work. It doesn't matter who develops something as long as it ends up being successful and helpful to alot of people.
I did some research about the product being tested that was mentioned in this thread and found out it might be Chinese Skullcap. I have included a link from the University of Maryland with more information about it.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/skullcap-000273.htm

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

Elaine the link you provide is about another species (Scutellaria baicalensis.) but from the same genera indeed the Sloane Ketting site warn about this:
"
Scutellaria barbata is a perennial herb prevalent in Korea and southern China. It is used along with other herbs in traditional Chinese medicine to treat bacterial infections, hepatitis, tumors, and as a diuretic. It should not be confused with Scutellaria baicalensis.

Data from in vitro studies suggest that S. barbata has antibacterial (1), antimutagenic (2), and anticancer (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (10) (11) (12) properties. The flavonoid components are thought responsible for the anticancer activity. Small studies of S. barbata show that it is safe and may benefit patients with advanced breast cancer (13) (14). Further research is needed.
"
As you can see this plant has been used in the traditionally for treating people for tumors, ie the simple plant extract.

Yes indeed many drugs are from plants I guess most of us know about taxol but the difference with this thread is that this company is simply using an extract. Many drugs are not simple extract but most have twicked the molecular compound to provide medical acceptable dosage. Here the phenomena happening is that we are taking ancestral herbs/traditional medicine banning their use (by putting financial barriers) and re-introduce them for 100 time the prices. So no it does not matter who develop it but whether it cost 10p or 100$ a pill matter to vary many. whether you can have it now or in 10 years matter to stage 3 & 4. Synergy is also of relevance here many cannot afford to have many of these drug acting in synergy like tyk and herc. If there could be a way to have eased up rule for trials of safe compound such as this plant extract simply adding it to the standard of care of some patient it would be a good way forward.

Thanks for encouraging me to post when I think it may be of use. In a similar way thank you for your reply. And yes I agree about the need of patients first not bark from trees or for that matter mice (which require massive paper work and cost a lots to be used even in cancer drug development).


References
1-Sato Y, et al. Phytochemical flavones isolated from Scutellaria barbata and antibacterial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. J Ethnopharmacol 2000; 72(3):483-488.
2-Wong BY, Lau BH, Teel RW. Chinese medicinal herbs modulate mutagenesis, DNA binding and metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene 7,8-dihydrodiol and benzo[a]pyrene 7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide. Cancer Lett 1992; 62(2):123-131.
3-Wong BY, et al. Oldenlandia diffusa and Scutellaria barbata augment macrophage oxidative burst and inhibit tumor growth. Cancer Biother Radiopharm 1996; 11(1):51-56.
4-Chan JY, et al. Pheophorbide a, a major antitumor component purified from Scutellaria barbata, induces apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Planta Med 2006; 72(1):28-33.
5-Goh D, Lee YH, Ong ES. Inhibitory effects of a chemically standardized extract from Scutellaria barbata in human colon cancer cell lines, LoVo. J Agric Food Chem 2005; 53(21):8197-8204.
6-Kim DI, et al. Regulation of IGF-I production and proliferation of human leiomyomal smooth muscle cells by Scutellaria barbata D. Don in vitro: isolation of flavonoids of apigenin and luteolin as acting compounds. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 2005; 205(3):213-224.
7-Yin X, et al. Anticancer activity and mechanism of Scutellaria barbata extract on human lung cancer cell line A549. Life Sci 2004; 75(18):2233-2244.
8-Powell CB, et al. Aqueous extract of herba Scutellaria barbatae, a chinese herb used for ovarian cancer, induces apoptosis of ovarian cancer cell lines. Gynecol Oncol 2003; 91(2):332-340.
9-Chen JK, Chen TT. Chinese Medical Herbology and Pharmacology, 2nd ed. California: Art of Medicine Press; 2004.
10-Yu J, Liu H, Lei J, et al. Antitumor activity of chloroform fraction of Scutellaria barbata and its active constituents. Phytother Res. 2007 Sep;21(9):817-22.
11-Kim KW, Jin UH, Kim DI, et al. Antiproliferative effect of Scutellaria barbata D. Don. on cultured human uterine leiomyoma cells by down-regulation of the expression of Bcl-2 protein. Phytother Res. 2008 May;22(5):583-90.
12-Ozmen A, Madlener S, Bauer S, et al. In vitro anti-leukemic activity of the ethno-pharmacological plant Scutellaria orientalis ssp. carica endemic to western Turkey. Phytomedicine. 2009 Jul 1. [Epub ahead of print].
13-Rugo H, Shtivelman E, Perez A, et al. Phase I trial and antitumor effects of BZL101 for patients with advanced breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2007 Sep;105(1):17-28. Epub 2006 Nov 17.
14-Perez AT, Arun B, Tripathy D, et al. A phase 1B dose escalation trial of Scutellaria barbata (BZL101) for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2010 Feb;120(1):111-8.

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

Hi, fullofbeans. Did you try chinese hebal medicine stores in Europe? They might have it. I get mine from a herbal medicine store in the U.S. Some lady posted an article about this plant and i remember she orders it online. It is a combination of Oldenlandia Diffusa and Scutellaria barbata . She also adds some Luo han guo, which makes it taste sweet. Sorry i don't remember where i saw her post.

Re: a plant extract with tested potency
 

It must be good.But it will be years before there is a whisper about it here