Granada: Anticancer medicines from the Elecampe plant

Development lead

Scientists from the Department of Organic Chemistry and the Biotechnology Institute at the University of Granada are developing treatments for migraine and cancer derived from Dittrichia viscosa, or Elecampe, a wild Mediterranean Sea plant that prevents migraine by inhibiting vasodilation of extracerebral and intracranial blood vessels.

Julieta Verónica Catalán, assistant professor at the National University of Tucuman, Argentina, under the supervision of María del Mar Herrador and Alejandro Fernández Barrero at the University of Granada, used the Elecampe plant to develop a method to purify ilicic acid.

This acid was used to synthesise the pharmacologically active anti-migraine mediator α-endesmol and β-endesmol, which selectively inhibits blood vessel formation.

Granada scientists have also used germacrona compound from Baccharis latifolia, a plant from the Bolivian Andes, to synthesise an anti-cancer β-element. It has been used in the treatment of lung and brain tumours. Its ability to induce apoptosis, and inhibit cellular differentiation and neoplasm metastases, makes it suitable for use in several chemotherapies. It can be used as a sole agent, or combined with other agents such as taxol, 5-Fu.