Back to the future of oridonin： again, compound from medicinal herb shows potent antileukemia efficacies in vitro and in vivo

Traditional Chinese Medicine （TCM） has been widely and successfully used in treating illnesses ranging from inflammation to cancer, and compounds from medicinal herbs and minerals are playing more and more important roles in taming various kinds of diseases 1 ], exemplified by artemisinin and arsenic trioxide （ATO）. Artemisinin （or Qinghaosu in Chinese） is isolated from a plant called sweet wormwood （Artemisia annua; or Qinghao in Chi- nese） which has been used as an antipyretic remedy for more than 1500 years in China. Artemisinin has impressive parasiticidal properties in vitro and in vivo, and is now one of the most important class of antimalarial agents 2, 3]. ATO is a common, naturally occurring substance which had been used in China for a long time as a therapeutic agent for some severe diseases with the ancient philosophy of ＇treating an evil with a toxic＇ 4]. In 1990s, ATO was shown to be able to cause partial differentiation at low dose and apoptosis at high concentration of acute promyelocytic leukemia （APL） cells 5], and induce complete remission in 90% of patients with relapsed or refractory APL 6-8]. These paradigms suggest that TCM is the treasure house not only for the Chinese people, but also for the whole human beings. It is our responsibility to develop evidence-based therapeutic approaches from TCM for diseases with poor prognosis.

Back to the future of oridonin: again, compound from medicinal herb shows potent antileukemia efficacies in vitro and in vivo