plant-pharmacology
Plant pharmacology is the study of bioactive compounds produced by plants and their effects on biological systems, including how plants synthesize, store, and deploy these molecules for defense, attraction, or signaling. Understanding plant pharmacology is essential for plant science because it reveals the chemical strategies plants use to interact with their environment, pathogens, and other organisms. This field also bridges botany and medicine, enabling researchers to identify and harness plant-derived compounds for therapeutic and agricultural applications.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-05-01
Sweetgum tree fruit extract was shown to kill bone cancer cells and block their spread in lab tests, targeting two proteins (PTGS2 and TGFB1) that tumors exploit to grow and evade the immune system.
Sweetgum fruit extract reduced the viability of both 143B and MNNG/HOS osteosarcoma cell lines and significantly increased cell death (apoptosis), as measured by flow cytometry.
Expression of the proteins PTGS2 and TGFB1 — identified via network pharmacology as key targets — was suppressed at both the protein and mRNA level in treated cancer cells.
The extract inhibited efferocytosis (the immune process by which macrophages clear dead tumor cells) in co-culture experiments, suggesting an additional mechanism by which it may disrupt the tumor microenvironment.
