Boswellia and boswellic acid, a potent chemotherapeutic agent

Boswellia serrata has been traditionally used in ayurvedic medicine to treat inflammatory problems. This has been its main use since this herb was found to be rich in Boswellic acids, an active component found in Boswellia serrata that helps on the treatment of inflammatory conditions. Image: Boswellia sacra by Scott Zona under Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0).

WHAT IS BOSWELLIC ACID?

Boswellic acids are Triterpenes, organic acids found mainly in the resin produced by plants in the genus Boswellia, as Boswellia serrata, and can be up to 30% of the total active constituents found in that resin. They were used in Ayurvedic medicine as part of many other traditional herbal remedies.

BOSWELLIA SERRATA

Family: Burseraceae
Genus: Boswellia
Common name: Indian frankincense, Salai, ru Xiang (Chinese).

BOSWELLIC ACID IN CHINESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

Chinese herbalists sold some medicinal herbal remedies
containing Boswellia serrata resins, as for example frankincense, also known as ru xiang in traditional Chinese medicine, where it was used to treat lymph disorders with apparently certain success.

It was also already known the importance of these acids since they were used to treat certain types of cancer, as brain tumors, colon cancer and leukemia, but is wasn't until recently that a study on the subject found how Boswellic acid was able to be used on the treatment of one of the most deadly types of cancer, Pancreatic cancer. Image: Boswellia sacra by Scott Zona under Creative Commons License (CC BY 2.0).

BOSWELLIC ACID AND PANCREATIC CANCER

In the cited study, scientists studied the effects of the Boswellic acid found in Boswellia serrata resin acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid (AKBA), an active constituent used since long time ago in Ayurvedic medicine. The results showed that Boswellic acid was able to inhibit the proliferation of four different Pancreatic cancer cell lines (AsPC-1, PANC-28, and MIA PaCa-2 with K-Ras and p53 mutations, and BxPC-3 with wild-type K-Ras and p53 mutation) [2].

Another effect of the use of Boswellic acid in the study was the induction of cancer cells apoptosis, or natural death cell, demonstrating that at least in the mouse model Boswellic acid was able to suppress the growth and metastasis of human pancreatic tumors.

BOSWELLIC ACID ON DMBA ORAL CARCINOGENESIS

In studies done with hamsters, boswellic acid and curcumin were effective in preventing oral carcinogenesis in DMBA-induced cheek pouch oral carcinogenesis [6].

STUDIES ON TRITERPENES AS BOSWELLIC ACID

Other studies on Triterpenes as Boswellic acid but also including avicins, betulinic acid, celastrol, diosgenin, madecassic acid, maslinic acid, momordin, saikosaponins, platycodon, pristimerin, ursolic acid, and withanolide, showed how triterpenes were able to inhibit NF-κB and STAT3 activation pathways, two of the main factors for inflammation and cellular transformation responsible for tumor cell survival and metastasis, being consequently able to also prevent and treat cancer. Let's hope this opens the door to new drugs and treatments for Pancreatic cancer.

BOSWELLIA SERRATA GUM

The gum secreted by Boswellia serrata has been made commercially available in parts of India (specially in Ambaji) under the name "Dhup no gugal" or "Saledi no dhup" [8].

REFERENCES:

[1] Essentials of Tibetan Traditional Medicine by Thinley Gyatso, Chris Hakim.

[2] Boswellic Acid Suppresses Growth and Metastasis of Human Pancreatic Tumors in an Orthotopic Nude Mouse Model through Modulation of Multiple Targets.
Park B, Prasad S, Yadav V, Sung B, Aggarwal BB.
Cytokine Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America.

[3] Wikipedia. Boswellic acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boswellic_acid).

[4] Targeting inflammatory pathways by triterpenoids for prevention and treatment of cancer.
Yadav VR, Prasad S, Sung B, Kannappan R, Aggarwal BB.
Cytokine Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, TX, USA;

[5] Growth inhibitory, apoptotic and anti-inflammatory activities displayed by a novel modified triterpenoid, cyano enone of methyl boswellates.
Ravanan P, Singh SK, Rao GS, Kondaiah P.
Department of Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.

[6] Chemopreventive effect of boswellic acid and curcumin on 7,12-dimethyl benzanthracene-induced hamster cheek pouch carcinogenesis.
[Article in Chinese]
Zhang XY, Chen XF, Sun Z, Miao CC, Ge LH, Tian ZC.
Department of Periodontal and Mucosal Disease, Capital Medical University School of Stomatology, Beijng 100050, China.

[7] PARP cleavage and perturbance in mitochondrial membrane potential by 3-α-propionyloxy-β-boswellic acid results in cancer cell death and tumor regression in murine models.
Qurishi Y, Hamid A, Sharma PR, Wani ZA, Mondhe DM, Singh SK, Zargar MA, Andotra SS, Shah BA, Taneja SC, Saxena AK.
Cancer Pharmacology Division, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research), Canal Road, Jammu-Tawi, 180001, India.

[8] Kanu Yogi.