Cancer Treatment and Prevention Using Plants

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The author is an expert in plant tissue culture with many years of experience in the field. He is running a tissue culture lab called Phytoclone laboratories in Kottayam where he used to teach a course in plant tissue culture. He has given guidance to many biotechnology students in doing various projects in plant tissue culture. Recently he was able to successfully culture in the lab a medicinal fungus called Cordyceps militaris the details of which are given in a recently published book How to Grow Cordyceps the World's Most Expensive Fungus.

The author is at present teaching at Brilliant Study Centre, in Pala, Kerala, the best institute in Kerala for medical entrance coaching. He has been teaching there for the last 18 years. Before that he was teaching at TIME in Kottayam, Kerala, another medical entrance coaching centre.

He took his doctoral degree in Botany from the University of New Hampshire, USA. His postdoctoral research was at the University of Minnesota, USA on an antimalarial compound called artemesinin.

Since the beginning of human civilization, medicinal plants have been used by mankind for its therapeutic value Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years and an impressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources. Many of these isolations were based on the uses of the agents in traditional medicine. The plant-based, traditional medicine systems continues to play an essential role in health care, with about 80% of the world's inhabitants relying mainly on traditional medicines for their primary health care.. India has several traditional medical systems, such as Ayurveda and Unani, which has survived through more than 3000 years, mainly using plant-based drugs. The materia medica of these systems contains a rich heritage of indigenous herbal practices that have helped to sustain the health of most rural people of India. The ancient texts like Rig Veda (4500-1600 BC) and Atharva Veda mention the use of several plants as medicine. The books on ayurvedic medicine such as Charaka Samhita and Susruta Samhita refer to the use of more than 700 herbs.

Cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases of human beings and is a major cause of death all over the globe. Cancer has been estimated as the second leading cause of death in humans. More than a million Indians suffer from cancer and a large number of them die from it annually Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death. The following facts will help us understand the importance of the "War on Cancer."

More than 1.2 million Americans develop cancer each year A new cancer is diagnosed every 30 seconds in the United States. Since 1990, nearly 15 million new cancer cases have been diagnosed.

Lung and prostate cancer are the top cancer killers for men in the United States. Lung and breast cancer are the top cancer killers for women in the United States. One in two men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer at some time during his lifetime. One in three women in the US will be diagnosed with cancer at some time during her lifetime.