Plant found in Amazon can help treat liver cancer

An Amazonian plant has “tremendous” potential in treating liver cancer, according to scientists from the University of the Basque Country.

The botanical extract of the indigenous Vismia baccifera leaf kills liver tumours in the lab, a Spanish study found, the Daily Mail reports.

The Amazonian plant Vismia baccifera triggers cancerous cells into “suicide” without harming healthy tissue, which causes much of the grueling side effects of chemotherapy.

Study author Dr Jenifer Trepiana said: “Right now, there is huge interest in identifying compounds derived from plants that could be used as chemotherapeutic agents with the capacity to prevent tumours from growing, or to treat metastasis, for example.”

Metastasis occurs when cancer spreads due to the development of tumours away from the disease's original site in the body.

The plant was picked from the Amazonian forest of Florencia, Columbia.

“Indigenous populations use it for its antiinflammatory properties or for urinary tract disorders or skin diseases, but we chose it because in previous studies we had seen that it is the one with the greatest antitumour capability in liver cancer cells that we have used,” Dr Trepiana said.

Results, published in the journal Heliyon, suggest V. baccifera is toxic to liver tumour cells.

The Amazonian plant produces substances, such as hydrogen peroxide, that stop these cancerous cells from dividing and damages their DNA.

When comparing the plant’s effect in cancerous versus healthy cells, “only the cancer cells were affected; we found that these effects do not take place in healthy human liver cells and, previously, in rat cells”, Dr Trepiana said.

“This is of huge interest because the most important thing is that healthy cells should remain unaffected.”

Chemotherapy affects healthy tissues when cells are constantly growing or dividing.

This includes hair, which is always growing; bone marrow, which is constantly producing blood cells; and the skin and digestive lining; which continuously renew themselves.

Other cells are able to replace or repair the healthy cells that are damaged by chemotherapy, according to Cancer Research UK.

Dr Trepiana called the study’s results “tremendously positive”, adding: “The ideal thing would be to take the research further and move towards doing in vivo studies using animal models, to go on passing milestones until it can be used as a therapy. Although we are well aware that it will be a very long road.”

V. baccifera is traditionally used in indigenous populations to relieve disorders of the urinary tract.