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After seeing news articles say there was NO EVIDENCE that essential oils work for Ebola and hearing that the FDA has not approved any oils for any sort of disease, I decided to see what was out there and expose the essential oil industry. Instead, I found a mountain of peer reviewed studies for all kinds of serious diseases saying how well they work, even on Ebola! So, I decided to set up this blog to post a few studies a week to expose the real frauds and show the world what NO EVIDENCE looks like.
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Leukemia and Boswellic Acid

Volume 23, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 43–50







"Boswellic acid acetate (BC-4), a compound isolated from the herb Boswellia carterii Birdw., can induce differentiation and apoptosis of leukemia cells...The dual apoptotic and differentiation effects of BC-4 suggest that it may be a powerful agent in the treatment of leukemia."

Boswellic acid acetate induces differentiation and apoptosis in leukemia cell lines

  • a Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
  • b Department of Phytochemistry, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
  • c Department of Biological Chemistry, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
  • d Mount Sinai Medical Center, Box 1178, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA

 Abstract

Boswellic acid acetate (BC-4), a compound isolated from the herb Boswellia carterii Birdw., can induce differentiation and apoptosis of leukemia cells. Based on cell morphology and NBT reduction, BC-4 induced monocytic differentiation of myeloid leukemia HL-60, U937 and ML-1 cells at a dose under 12.5 μg/ml (24.2 μM). BC-4 was a potent inducer, with 90% of the cells showing morphologic changes and 80–90% of the cells showing NBT reduction. Specific and non-specific esterase were also increased by BC-4. Based on benzidine staining assay, BC-4 failed to induce erythroid leukemia DS-19 and K562 cells differentiation. In contrast to its selective differentiation effect, BC-4 strongly inhibited growth of all cell lines tested. The growth inhibition effect was dose- and time-dependent. In HL-60 cells, 20 μg/ml (38.8 μM) of BC-4 decreased viable cell number by 60% at 24 h, whereas at 3 days there was virtually no viable cells. Morphologic and DNA fragmentation analysis proved that BC-4 induced cell apoptosis. The dual apoptotic and differentiation effects of BC-4 suggest that it may be a powerful agent in the treatment of leukemia.

Keywords

  • Boswellic acid acetate
  • Leukemia
  • Differentiation
  • Apoptosis

Abbreviations

  • 5-LO, 5-lipoxygenase
  • TPA, 12-O-tetra-decanoylphorbol-13-acetate
  • NBT nitroblue tetrazolium
  • NSE, α-naphthyl acetate esterase
  • SE, AS-D chloroacetate esterase
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 212 2413194; fax: +1 212 9965787; e-mail: jing@msvax.mssm.edu.
 
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