October 2nd, 2006
PLANTS CAN HELP PREVENT
CANCER
The Indena approach to chemoprevention presented at the
48° Annual Meeting of the Italian Cancer Society
Bari, October 2nd, 2006 - Indena, the
leading company in the production of natural extracts and
drugs of botanical origin, conducted a symposium today on
the anticancer properties of edible plants at the 48°
Annual Meeting of the Italian Cancer Society.
There is an emerging body of evidence that the
extracts from edible plants play a role as chemopreventive
agents in cancer over and above their chemotherapeutic
activity.
“Given
that 40% of anticancer drugs discovered over the last 60
years are botanicals or a botanical derivative, –
explained Paolo
Morazzoni, Indena Scientific Director
– the importance of plants in cancer therapy can today
be taken for granted. Oncology research is increasingly
heading towards prevention and finding exciting responses
in nature.”
Edible
plants such as
Camellia
sinensis L.
(green tea), Glycine
max L. (soybean), and Curcuma
longa,
are
not only defined as important foods for a healthy
lifestyle, but are also object of phytochemical research
aimed at identifying the protective active ingredients
contained in them. This has led to the research and
development of standardized botanical extracts, products
whose chemical composition is well-characterized and
reproducible and therefore able to provide biological data
consistent in terms of safety and efficacy. The most
important active principles of these extracts are
polyphenols, which have been shown to interfere with tumor
progression. This occurs through various action mechanisms
such as the modulation of cell cycle regulating factors
and of tumor genes' expression. Moreover, these agents
have shown anti-inflammatory characteristics and it is
well known that the inflammatory process contributes to
tumor development, particularly affecting the colon,
breast and lung.
This activity aimed at multiple targets can be of
therapeutic benefit in such a complex pathology whose
onset and progression are regulated by various genetic
events.
Indena
ensures product quality through a rigorous standardization
process based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)
and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
This in combination with quantitative (HPLC,
HPLC-MS) and
semi-quantitative analytical techniques (NMR,
FT-IR and NIR spectroscopy) enables the industrial scale preparation of highly
consistent standardized extracts endowed with very
interesting biological properties.
In
addition to Paolo Morazzoni, two prominent researchers,
Prof. A. Gescher of Leicester University, UK and A. Albini
from the National Tumor Institute of Genoa, Italy took
part in the seminar entitled “Edible
plants against cancer: state of the art and future
perspectives”.
The two scientists spoke respectively on their
important work on the development of natural occurring
agents as chemopreventive drugs and how plant-derived
molecules act on angiogenesis.
The
presence of Indena at this important meeting devoted to
cancer research held in Italy is a further proof of the
scientific community’s interest in substances of
botanical origin and of the consolidated commitment of the
Italian company in the fight against cancer.
Press Contacts
Cohn & Wolfe Milan
Laura Faravelli laura_faravelli@cohnwolfe.com
Lorenzo Petracco lorenzo_petracco@cohnwolfe.com
Tel.+39 02 202391
