Today I spent a few hours preparing ethanol/water and DMSO/water extracts of Curcuma, Ginseng and Artemisia Annua. The outcome (including the formulation) is shown in the picture below.
The idea for using not only ethanol or DMSO but also water is to extract the water soluble components too. The intention is to use these extracts as topical or oral application. Actually, the best Curcumin IV formulation I have seen so far is such an extract, off course sterilized. It can have stronger anti cancer effects compared to pure Curcumin and that is because this extraction method will not only extract Curcumin but also some other curcuminoids such as demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC).
Indeed, all three major Curcuma extracts are known to posses important anticancer potential. Here are a few studies indicating that:
- Curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin differentially inhibit cancer cell invasion through the down-regulation of MMPs and uPA http://www.jnutbio.com/article/S0955-2863(08)00004-1/abstract
- Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) is a Topoisomerases-IIα (TOP2A) inhibitor http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23928695. This mechanism is similar as chemotheraphy such as Etoposide.
- Oxidative Transformation of Demethoxy- and Bisdemethoxycurcumin: Products, Mechanism of Formation, and Poisoning of Human Topoisomerase IIα. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25806475
- Therapeutic potential of turmeric in Alzheimer’s disease: curcumin or curcuminoids? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23873854
- Evaluation of in vitro anti-proliferative and immunomodulatory activities of compounds isolated from Curcuma longa. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20438793
- Immunostimulatory activities of polysaccharide extract isolated from Curcuma longa. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20609432
- It was observed that BDMC inhibited the TGF-β1 induced EMT in 95D cells. Furthermore, it also inhibited the Wnt signaling pathway by upregulating WIF-1 protein expression. In addition, WIF-1 manipulation studies further revealed that WIF-1 is a central molecule mediating BDMC response towards TGF-β1 induced EMT by regulating cell invasion and migration. http://www.cmj.org/article.asp?issn=0366-6999;year=2015;volume=128;issue=10;spage=1376;epage=1383;aulast=Xu
Lately, I started to see the power of the whole plant and not only one specific extract from plants. As we have seen in the post on Artemisia Annua, one gram of the whole plant may be more effective then one gram of pure Artemisinin extract from the whole plant. I believe this is the case for Curcumin too, at least the case of the IV formulation. So, when searching for IV suppliers we may want to check if the IV contains the hole plant or an extract only.
Fore more discussion on Curcumin please go to the following post https://www.cancertreatmentsresearch.com/?p=1281
You may want to give some attention to Scutellaria barbata (Ban zhi lian) and Lithospermum erythrorhizon (Zi cao).
Bezielle selectively targets mitochondria of cancer cells to inhibit glycolysis and OXPHOS.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22319564
Shikonin circumvents cancer drug resistance by induction of a necroptotic death.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17513612
HI Ovidiu. Thanks for that. Indeed I like Scutellaria barbata as it has many anti cancer components inside, one of which is constantly in my attention, i.e. Baicalein. We did use both the whole plant and the extract Baicalein as a supplement. However, I did not know Bezielle. I will check it but this proves the power of the whole plants as there is so much more inside. Ideally, as a supplement I would always consider the administration of the whole plant and next to that the extract of interest.
Shikonin is another component that I follow for long time and his anti cancer action stands out indeed.
Coming back to Scutellaria barbata, your comment made me remember about Scutellaria barbata and will order some whole plant to prepare a similar extract as above.
My personal experience was, years ago, when less information was available, that Ban zhi lian tasted awful, and did not seem to have side effects, while Zi cao tasted OK, but made me feel uncomfortable. So Ban zhi lian was used for a little while, but didn’t seem to make a difference, and Zi cao not at all (didn’t know what would have been an effective dose).
Where did you get Ban zhi lian, what was the delivery route and the dose Ovidu?
http://www.amazon.com/Ban-Zhi-Lian-Barbed-Skullcap/dp/B0040HNPJW/ref=sr_1_1_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1464285422&sr=1-1&keywords=ban+zhi+lian
I don’t remember exactly the dose, probably 3 – 4 teaspoons per day. I also made an ethanolic extract, that tasted awful too. 🙂