More than one-third of U.S. adults use some form of alternative medicine such as herbal supplements and other therapies, showed in a nationwide survey by NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine published in May 2004.
While it might be relatively new in Western countries, herbal medicine, also know as Chinese medicine in China, has long been used for many centuries as a major form of medicine for disease treatment in China and other Asian countries. However, the mechanisms of how exactly herbal medicine fighting against diseases and its pharmacological/immunologic effect are not fully and well understood.
A team of researchers in University of Hong Kong has been studying a kind of herbal medicine in gastric cancer with very low systemic toxicity. This herbal medicine, called CKBM, is a combination of herbs and yeasts including Wu Wei Zi (Schisandra chinensis), Ginseng (Panax ginseng), Hawthorn (Fructus Crataegi), Jujube (Ziziphus jujube), Soybean (Glycine Max) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast). The herbal medicine has demonstrated being capable of improving immune responsiveness through the induction of cytokine mediators, such as TNF-a and IL-6. In this study, the researchers investigated the effect of CKBM on gastric cancer growth in nude mice using a human xenograft model. Gastric cancer tissues (1.5 mm3) were implanted subcutaneously into the right dorsal area of mice. Ten days after implantation, animals were randomized into treatment groups fed with various doses of CKBM intragastrically daily for 14 and 28 days and untreated group.