Daffodils May Soon Help Cure Cancer

[Judi Lynn]

Feb 27, 2018 12:38 AM By Sadhana Bharanidharan

Could Daffodils help us cure cancer? It may sound like a folk fairy tale but according to researchers from the RNA Molecular Biology Laboratory, there exists a scientific link between cancer and an extract from the flower.

Researchers have been able to extract a natural anti-cancer compound from the European-native Daffodils (Amaryllidaceae Narcissus) called haemanthamine. They observed that this compound blocked the production of a protein which is essential for the growth of cancer cells.

"Cancer cells are particularly sensitive to a reduction in protein synthesis," explains the study which was published in the scientific journal Structure (Cell Press). The compound achieves this by binding the ribosome, a protein builder found in cells which is responsible for the synthesizing process.

The compound also hinders the production of such nanomachines in the nucleolus which will trigger the stabilization of the protein p53 and lead to the elimination of cancer cells. The research states that "the presence of p53 in cells is indeed required for the effect of nucleolar stress activation to be impactful on cell growth limitation."

More:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/daffodils-may-soon-help-cure-cancer-422745

[raven mad]

1. My mom-in-love's favorite flower - and what we had in abundance for her funeral.

I am totally non compos mentis when it comes to flowers. My veggies do great! No way to fix for spring, we'll still be under 5' of snow (the 14 inches today didn't help).

[csziggy]

3. Daffodils and their relatives paper whites (both are narcissus) are easy to grow

They need nothing more than a place to grow.

When we bought this farm, behind the old house was a clump of paper whites. I dug them up and replanted them next to the double wide we moved in. Over the last forty years I have dug up clumps, divided them, and replanted the individual bulbs. They are all over the place now, along with a few daffodils I've stuck in the ground along with them.

One year my dog dug a hole in a bed of paper whites and threw a bulb into the top of a sago palm. The paper white not only happily grew there, it bloomed and divided into more plants! When we were residing the double wide, I dug up all the bulbs I could find and threw them into a feed sack. They spent about six months in that bag, but when I planted them, they happily came back and bloomed even more.

Other than occasionally digging and dividing, I do nothing for the paper whites. No water, no fertilizer, and most years they have to fight with the weeds for space.

So if you want to grow daffodils in memory of your Mom, buy some bulbs next fall, stick them in the ground and let them do their thing!

[Sherman A1]

2. We can hope that

They find a cure or a treatment.