Genomic and in vivo evidence of synergy of a herbal extract compared to its most active ingredient: Rabdosia rubescens vs. oridonin

Rabdosia rubescens is a herbal root extract of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) used to treat inflammatory diseases and oral cancers. A key principle of TCM is that multiple ingredients in a plant extract are more effective and less toxic than a single purified active ingredient or a purified drug...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental and therapeutic medicine 2010-11, Vol.1 (6), p.1013-1017
Main Authors: WONG, ANGELA M, ZHANG, YANJUNG, KESLER, KELLY, DENG, MAX, BURHENN, LUCAS, WANG, DAVID, MORO, AUNE, LI, ZHAOPING, HEBER, DAVID
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
inflammation
nuclear factor-κB
prostate cancer
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Rabdosia rubescens is a herbal root extract of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) used to treat inflammatory diseases and oral cancers. A key principle of TCM is that multiple ingredients in a plant extract are more effective and less toxic than a single purified active ingredient or a purified drug derived from a plant product. Rabdosia rubescens extract (RRE) contains terpenoids and flavonoids, but the most active ingredient within the extract attributed to the inhibition of cancer is the kaurene diterpene, oridonin. In order to research synergy with a complete plant extract, the effects of RRE on the inhibition of prostate cancer cell proliferation were compared to the effects of pure oridonin alone in vitro. Three groups of 8 SCID mice bearing human prostate cancer xenografts (LAPC-4) were administered either RRE containing 0.02 mg/g oridonin, pure oridonin at a dose of 0.02 mg/g, or pure oridonin at a dose of 0.1 mg/g, by gavage for 5 days/week for 4 weeks. RRE and pure oridonin at 0.1 mg/g inhibited tumor growth to a similar extent, while oridonin at a dose of 0.02 mg/g did not. Therefore, in comparison to RRE, five times more pure oridonin was required to obtain equivalent prostate xenograft growth inhibition. Since the nuclear factor-κB signaling pathway and inflammation are implicated in prostate carcinogenesis, gene microarray analysis was conducted and demonstrated activation of genes by RRE that was not evident with oridonin treatment alone. This study demonstrated that genomic methods and xenograft studies are capable of demonstrating the benefits of the synergy of whole plant extracts rather than active ingredients isolated and purified as drugs.
ISSN:1792-0981
1792-1015
DOI:10.3892/etm.2010.145