Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, My name is Sean and I am performing an experiment for herbal effectiveness against the deadly skin disease Malignant Melanoma, and I have a few questions on whether the herb, Hoxsey, in which I want to test for is legal to use in the U.S. I have done background research on the herb, and had found the histroy behind it as it was founded in the 1920's, the founder had multiple clinics using the herb to help cure cancer, and had been closed down and been banned by the FDA in the 1950's due to a investigation. I want to know whether it has ben un-banned or not in the US because it is online to buy on google, but I am not sure if it is leaglized or not. :l Also, im not sure if it is a good experiment or not whether it has been done before or not. Where am I able to find similar sources/information to make sure that this hasn't been done before (testing Hoxsey VS. Melanoma). Lastly, are all melanoma cells the same, or are they different types of it that I need to be aware of. Thank you guys for the help!!!
Sincerely,
Sean Malloy

Hi Sean,

This is certainly a fascinating topic for a science fair project, and the notorious history of this herbal supplement makes it more intriguing.

I did a Google search for Hoxsey, which is an herbal supplement containing red clover, burdock, barberry, licorice root, buckthorn bark, prickly ash, pokeberry, and Stillingia. This supplement is currently available for purchase from several sources. So it is apparently legal to purchase this herb in the US, and I imagine that you would be able to obtain it from your local health food store.

What would be illegal is promoting it as a cure for cancer, since there is currently no scientific evidence that hoxsey is effective against melanoma. Also, if you promised someone you could cure cancer with this treatment, that would be practicing medicine without a license, which is also illegal.

Here is a site that describes what is required for FDA approval for a new drug. The original promoter of hoxsey skipped all of these steps, and probably provided inspiration for current regulations regarding drug development and product claims.

http://www.fda.gov/drugs/developmentapp ... efault.htm

However, this would make an excellent science project. Your objective, would be to go back and review all of the literature on this subject, and test the herb to find out if it inhibits cancer cells growing in tissue culture cells.

I recommend doing background research on all of the components of Hoxsey and try to identify the compounds that might be effective against rapidly growing human epithelial cells. One problem with the herbal mixture is that it would give you too many variables in the experiment, so you might want to text the complete mixture, and perhaps identify one or two chemicals to test separately. Also, look for scientific references about melanoma and find information about what might inhibit growth of this type of cancer.

You might be able to adapt the following project idea on the Science Buddies website to your experiment:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p022.shtml

Do you have access to a tissue culture lab? If not, then you would need to identify an alternate way to test the herbal mixture.

Please post again if you have any questions.


Donna Hardy

Thank you Dona Hardy for the extremely helpful responses that you have gave me. I have read your previous response, and have contemplated doing the procedure and advices in my project (i sure need to research a little bit more about my experiment). one major problem i am facing right now is whether I can obtain the cancer cell tissue I need for the experiment. I have access to a biotech lab with a biological safety cabinet and have the equipment to perform an experiment with a biological safety hazard of 2 (witch is also the level for growing/experimenting cancer cells) I just need help finding a source to get our lab certified (by a qualified scientist) also I need help finding a source to obtain the cancer cells (such as a research and development company). I have contacted some places such as Vanton medicine, Pfizer, and a couple of Berkeley Science Research centers. I need help finding contacts for finding a possible place to help me conduct my experiment and to help certify, and possibly direct me in this experiment.

Hi Sean,

Donna has given you some excellent advice and does have more expertise in this area of research than I do! Still, I wanted to direct you to the Science Buddies information about finding a mentor, since your project is exactly the sort of study that will require a good mentor: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml

I hope this helps.

Heather

Hi Sean,

Heather has given you a good source of information; the article on how to find a mentor is excellent. However, actually finding a mentor will require lots of work. You will need to identify potential contacts and write a personalized e-mail message for each contact with no guarantee of success. Hopefully, you have already started to contact cancer researchers in your local area that might be available to help you with advice and resources for this project.

Melanoma cell lines are available from ATCC, but are very expensive. It would be better if you could obtain a local source of the cell line. However, here is information for ordering:

http://www.atcc.org/ATCCAdvancedCatalog ... ellBiology

One problem with testing the mixture of herbs is that, even if you could measure an effect of the herbal mixture on melanoma cells, there are so many chemicals present that you would not know what was causing the effect. Have you done any research on the chemicals that are present in pokeweed, burdock root, licorice, barberry, buckthorn bark, Stillingia root, red clover, prickly ash bark, and cascara?

Do these plants contain significant levels of antioxidants? The development of cancer is believed to be the result of oxidative stress, so identifying antioxidants, or purifying specific chemicals from any of the plants that might have antioxidant activity might provide your with another approach to working on this project.

Here are some examples of alternative project ideas, if you are not able to obtain the melanoma cells:

Here is a paper that describes the effect of one protein from pokeweed on cell division:

http://www.jbc.org/content/255/8/3251.short

Here is a paper on the chemistry of some compounds found in licorice; the cytotoxicity effects might be important for research on melanoma:

http://showme.physics.drexel.edu/mirza/ ... 7x1199.pdf

Here’s a paper on the biological properties of Stillingia.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S01 ... xt&tlng=es

Search for “Google Scholar,” and then search for the various plants to find more information.

Donna Hardy