Rhizoma Paridis ( Blood Root )
Rhizoma Paridis (dried root and rhizome) has been an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese herbal medicine.
In the past decade, active components of Rhizoma Paridis - the Paris saponins have emerged as promising anti-cancer agents.
Among these saponins, polyphyllin D (Paris saponin (PS) I), has been extensively studied and proposed to be a potent antitumor
agent. In this study, we continue to establish the efficacy and mechanisms underlying the cytotoxic effects of the steroidal
PS members, namely formosanin C (PSII) in ovarian cancer treatment. We isolated PSII and evaluated its effects on a panel
of ten human cell lines. Isolated PSII has potent inhibitory effects on the growth of tumor cells without deleterious
effects to different normal cell types or benign neoplastic derived cells.