Veratrum Californicum - Use As Prime Material For Medical Drugs

Use As Prime Material For Medical Drugs

Cyclopamine extracted from V. californicum is being used in anti-cancer experimental drugs. One derivative of it, compound name IPI-926, is currently undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of various types of cancer, including hard-to-treat hematologic malignancies, chondrosarcoma, and pancreatic cancer. IPI-926 is the only compound in development/testing that is not fully synthetic.

  • Leaves on a young plant

  • Closeup of flowers

Read more about this topic:  Veratrum Californicum

Famous quotes containing the words prime, material, medical and/or drugs:

    “And this must be the prime of life . . . I blink,
    As if at pain; for it is pain, to think
    This pantomime
    Of compensating act and counter-act,
    Defeat and counterfeit, makes up, in fact,
    My ablest time.”
    —Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    “Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life—its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness—conjoin to dull our sensory faculties.”
    —Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    “One fellow I was dating in medical school ... was a veterinarian and he wanted to get married. I said, but you’re going to be moving to Minneapolis, and he said, oh, you can quit and I’ll take care of you. I said, “Go.””
    —Sylvia Beckman (b. c. 1931)

    “There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.”
    —Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (b. 1926)