Natural Substances That Fight Malignant Melanoma

Dandelion Greens & Roots Elixir  

Dandelion Roots

Although regarded in modernity as a pesky garden weed, dandelion, or Taraxacum officinale, has long been a staple of traditional Chinese, Middle Eastern, and Native American folk medicine. It has been used by traditional medical systems for digestive, kidney, liver, and spleen disorders, as well as tumors of the lung, breast, and uterus. Dandelion is renowned in holistic medicine as a detoxifying agent, but it is also an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-angiogenic (prevents the growth of blood vessels that supply tumors with nutrients), anti-nociceptive (attenuates sensation of pain), and anti-cancer.

Studies have demonstrated that dandelion transforms mouse melanoma cells from a proliferative phenotype, which epitomizes the profligate cell division of cancer growth, to a differentiated phenotype representative of restoration of a normal cell cycle. Lupeol-a, the triterpene compound in dandelion found to elicit this effect, is cytostatic, meaning it inhibits cell growth and multiplication.

Taraxacum japonicum, a species of dandelion native to Japan, has also been shown to suppress two stages of carcinogenesis, tumor initiation and promotion. It was concluded that a triterpenoid compound called taraxasterol within dandelion is chemopreventative, meaning an agent that slows or prevents the development of cancer. In an in vitro study, researchers propose that dandelion root extract represents a novel chemotherapeutic agent, as it selectively induced apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in human melanoma cells while preserving noncancerous cells. Not only do healthy cells remain unaffected, but “melanoma cells retain the signals to commit suicide long after [dandelion root extract] has been removed from the system”.