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University's natural products research on cutting edge.

Article Excerpt
OXFORD -- Imagine in the future eating a handful of blueberries instead of taking a pill to keep your cholesterol in check. Or, imagine that the newest effective treatment for breast cancer has been developed from lizard's tail (Saururus cernuus), a common wetlands plant in Mississippi, and that the University of Mississippi has patent rights to the new anti-cancer pharmaceutical.

Both of those potential life-saving natural drugs are currently under study and development at the university's National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR).

Dr. Dale Nagle, associate professor of pharmacognosy at the Ole Miss School of Pharmacy, said laboratory tests show that a group of compounds in lizard's tail destroy tumor cells.

"These are some of the most potent compounds ever found to inhibit these targets," Nagle said "It's exciting because if these compounds work in humans the same way as they do in the lab, we could kill cancer cells without the nasty side-effects of conventional chemotherapy."

The findings were reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Natural Products.

Nagle and other members of the research team are investigating several promising compounds as...

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