Plants From Ethiopia Could Help Combat Cancer, Study Shows

"There are many medicinal plants that have been used by the traditional healers for centuries," said Paulos Yohannes, a chemistry professor who serves as associate dean for STEM/research at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College. "At this moment, preliminary studies have shown that we are working with plant extracts that exhibit anticancer activities."

"The first is to assess these extracts or purified compounds for biological activity, starting with cell culture experiments. In searching for anticancer compounds, we look for those that exhibit potent cytotoxicity against cancer cells. Once activity is confirmed, there is a set of spectroscopic experiments that we conduct to confirm the structures of the compounds," the researcher noted.