Many anti-cancer drugs were developed from botanicals used in traditional medicine. However, modern anti-cancer therapy is often based on drug combinations that provide synergic anti-cancer effects. The aim of our study was to use costumed activity-based screening of traditionally used botanicals, which were previously screened by us for anti-cancer effects, for synergic anti-cancer combinations. We found a combination of two botanicals with very strong synergic effect on cancer cells. This effect was observed in all tested human cancer cell lines and in primary tumor cells. Our results suggest that the treatment interferes with the cell cycle of cancer cells, causing them to accumulate in the G2 phase of the cell cycle and leading to apoptosis. Further research of this combination may lead to the development of new effective anti-cancer therapies.
