BETTER treatments for leukaemia could be on the horizon thanks to the feverfew, a daisy-like plant traditionally used to treat migraines and arthritis.
The plant yields a substance that kills the rogue stem cells that give rise to all leukaemia cells. Because these stem cells divide slowly, they often survive conventional treatments. But parthenolide, the substance found in feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium, targets the leukaemia stem cells while leaving normal blood stem cells unharmed (Blood, DOI: 10.1182/blood-2004-10-4135).
“It appears to push the cancer stem cells more readily towards cell death,” says Craig Jordan of the University of Rochester in New York, a member of the team…
