Research has shown a rhubarb-based drug could help fight against cancer. According to this research, an orange-coloured chemical in rhubarb, parietin, has powerful anti-cancer properties.
Parietin can zap cells in leukaemia as well as lung, head and neck tumours, however healthy cells will remain untouched. This is significant as many of the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy, from nausea to hair loss, are caused by healthy cells suffering collateral damage.
Scientists in the US found parietin after searching for chemicals that would block a protein called 6PGD which helps cancers grow. Scientists carried out an experiment which showed that parietin killed diseased cells taken from a patient with the blood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Half of the cancerous cells were destroyed within 48 hours.
Scientists from Emory University in Atlanta have shown it is possible to alter the chemistry of parietin to make an even more powerful compound. This drug slowed the growth of tumours that were growing on mice but were made up of human cells, but more work and tests are needed to confirm that the rhubarb-based drugs are free of side-effects.
Even though rhubarb is only just being discovered in Western medicine, the plant has been a staple of Chinese traditional medicine for centuries. It is claimed it can aid everything from digestion and acne to burns and appetite.