WILLOW trees could provide the source of a new cancer drug, suggests a new study.
Scientists have discovered an anti-cancer compound in the stems and leaves of willows - more than a century after the trees gave us aspirin.
The potential new drug could help fight several childhood cancers as well as breast, throat and ovarian cancers.
Willow trees have been used in medicine since the ancient Greeks.
The bark contains salicin - a compound similar to aspirin - which has long been used to relieve pain, inflammation and fever.
A synthetic version was created in 1897 which gave us aspirin - one of the earliest and most successful nature-inspired drugs.
Now British-based researchers at Rothamsted Research and the University of Kent have found another use for the humble willow.
They discovered the chemical miyabeacin which has been found to kill various cancer cells, including those resistant to other drugs.
The team tested miyabeacin against a range of cancer cell lines including those established from a stage 4 patient.
Analysis found the chemical fights against neuroblastoma - a hard to treat childhood cancer where overall survival rate is below 50 per cent.
After brain cancers, neuroblastoma is the most frequent solid tumour seen in under fives.
Miyabeacin was also effective against several breast, throat and ovarian cancer cell lines.
Study co-leader Professor Mike Beale, from Rothamsted Research, said the pharmaceutical uses of salicin - the active ingredient in aspirin - are well known, but the potential of miyabeacin is even greater.
Professor Beale said: “With resistance to treatment being a significant issue in cancers such as neuroblastoma, new drugs with novel modes of action are required and miyabeacin perhaps offers a new opportunity in this respect.
“Structurally, it contains two salicin groups that give it a potential ‘double dose’ of anti-inflammatory and anti-blood clotting ability that we associate with aspirin.
“However, our results reporting the activity of miyabeacin against a number of cancer cell lines, including cell lines with acquired drug resistance, adds further evidence for the multi-faceted pharmacology of willow.”
Study co-leader Dr Jane Ward puts the cancer breakthrough down to the Rothamsted Research collection of 1,500 willow species and hybrids.
The centre is home to the UK’s National Willow Collection where experts can screen the trees with state of the art techniques.
Dr Ward added: “Possibly because of the success of aspirin, medicinal assessment of other salicinoids in willow has been mostly neglected by modern science, and the National Willow Collection has proven to be a gold-mine of exciting new chemistry, that perhaps underlies its position in ancient therapies.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here