Indena conducted a symposium on the anticancer properties of edible plants at the 48th 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, says the company.
"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-characterised 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 tumour 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 standardisation 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, 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.
