olasodine Rhamnosyl Glycosides Specifically Bind Cancer Cell Receptors and Induce Apoptosis and Necrosis. Treatment for Skin Cancer and Hope for Internal Cancers

Cattle farmers in Australia have proclaimed that crushing and application of the fruit of a weed known as Devil's Apple retarded the progress of ocular squamous cell carcinoma in Hereford cattle. The Devil's Apple plant, Solanum linnaeanum (also known as Solanum sodomaeum and Solanum hermannii), is a member of the same family as eggplant, potatoes and tomatoes. In 1987 it was reported that the fruit of the Devil's Apple plant contained a mixture of solasodine glycosides. The mixture of solasodine glycosides was constant when extracted from the fruits of the Devil's Apple plant and was given the name BEC which consisted of the triglycosides solasonine, solamargine and di-and monogly cos ides. All the glycosides contained the same aglycone an alkaloid solasodine and the sugar moiety consisted of rhamnose, glucose and galactose. BEC has antineoplastic properties against a wide variety of human cancers in cell culture, tissue culture and is very effective against terminal tumours in animals. BEC not only prolonged the life of animals with terminal cancers, but the cancers were completely eliminated rendering the animals cancer free for the remainder of their normal life span. BEC in a topical cream formulation is now available clinically for the treatment of non malignant and malignant human skin cancers. BEC is very selective in killing cancer cells without harming normal cells due to a unique mode of action. In addition BEC exerts its antineoplastic activity on cancer cells at proliferative as well as "resting" (nonproliferative) stages of their life cycles. BEC, due to its selectivity and efficacy is superior to other well established antineoplastics. The observations that BEC has good antineoplastic activities, together with a very high safety profile, have paved the way for much work currently being undertaken to establish the potential of BEC as a new antineoplastic agent for internal cancers.