Mistletoe extract helps treat colon cancer

Australian scientists said that mistletoe extract may support chemotherapy or a chemotherapy alternative to treating colon cancer, according to UPI.

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University of Adelaide graduate student Zahra Lotfollahi compared the effectiveness of three different ranges of mistletoe extracts and the use of chemotherapy on colon cancer cells. She also compared the effects of mistletoe extract and chemotherapy on healthy intestinal cells.

Mistletoe extract can cure colon cancer - (Photo: Shutterstock)

Professor Gordon Howarth, senior researcher at the University of Adelaide - one of Ms Lotfollahi's advisers, said the mistletoe extract is now allowed to be used to treat colon cancer in Europe, but not permission in other countries like Australia and the US due to lack of scientific testing.

"Mistletoe extract has been considered a possible alternative therapy abroad for many years, but it is important that we understand the scientific value behind it ," said Howarth.

Lotfollahi has discovered one of the mistletoe extracts, of a type called Fraxini, which grows in ash trees, highly effective against cultured cancer cells and 'mild'. more with healthy intestinal cells than chemotherapy.

"This is an important result because we know that chemotherapy destroys both healthy cells and cancer cells, which often lead to side effects like mouth ulcers and hair loss," Ms Lotfollahi said.