by Tony Isaacs

The major active compound in the amazing cancer fighting and immune boosting oleander plant is felt to be the cardiac glycoside oleandrin. However, the opinion among those who have studied oleander is virtually unanimous; it is a synergistic combination of many ingredients which makes oleander as successful as it is.

It has been reported that literally hundreds of different compounds have been identified in the amazing cancer fighting and immune boosting oleander plant. Research has yet to discover exactly which ones work both independently and together for optimum effect, though oleander extract has shown remarkable success against a very broad range of cancers, including lung, liver, leukemia, breast, brain, prostate, stomach, pancreatic and more.

To paraphrase a department head at noted cancer research facility M. D. Anderson in Houston, "We don`t know yet exactly how it works, we just know that it does work, attacking and killing bad cells - and only bad cells - and stopping their multiplication."

Among the known cancer fighters and immune boosters which have been identified so far are:

Cardiac glycosides, long chain polysacharrides and other types of compounds including: Oleandrin, Oleandrinogen, Oleandrigenin, Beta-sistosterol, Quercitin, Linoleic-acid, Oleic-acid, Adynerin, Alpha-amyrin, Betulin, Foliandrin, Folinerin, Gitoxigenin, Isoquercitrin, Lauric-acid, Neriin, Oleanolic-acid, Rutin, Stigmasterol, Ursolic-acid, Uzarigenin.

Now, two Japanese studies from last year which were apparently conducted jointly appear to shed new light on yet other compounds in oleander which were tested against malignant fibroblast tumors, liver tumor cells, lung tumor cells and ovarian cancer cells.

The first study was titled "Bioactive Cardenolides from the Stems and Twigs of Nerium oleander", and it evaluated thirteen compounds against fibroblast, liver and ovarian cancer cells. The test results found that seven of the compounds demonstrated anti-cancer activity against the fibroblast tumors; three compounds were active against liver tumor cells and four exhibited selective cell growth inhibitory activity toward fibroblast tumors.

All thirteen compounds were evaluated against ovarian cancer cells on the basis of the amount of calcein accumulated in MDR human ovarian cancer 2780AD cells in the presence of each compound. Three of the compounds showed "significant effects on calcein accumulation" and one of the three showed "stronger activity than that of verapamil."

In the second study, "Bioactive pregnanes from nerium oleander", three new pregnanes together with two known pregnane compounds were evaluated against fibroblast, liver, lung and ovarian cancer cells. One of the pregnanes was found to have significant cytotoxic activity against both fibroblast and liver cancer cells. Three of the pregnanes were found to have significant activity against ovarian cancer.

The study would appear to be especially encouraging for cancer patients with ovarian cancer, a particularly difficult cancer, especially when combined with previous studies which concentrated mostly on the cardiac glycosides or else the entire array of compounds found in an aqueous extraction of the oleander plant.

In real life applications, oleander medicines and supplements, and a noted oleander home remedy, have enjoyed tremendous success against cancer. Dr. H. Zima Ozel, who re-discovered an age old oleander remedy and later developed the patented medicine Anvirzel reported success rates of over 70% in the 40 plus years that he has used oleander in Turkey. The present manufacturers of Anvirzel similarly report very high success rates against a variety of cancers, including the very difficult pancreatic cancer.

During the past six plus years, thousands of people have used an inexpensive oleander based supplement from South Africa, Sutherlandia OPC, as well as a home remedy version based on the Ozel extract with over 90% success reported.  In addition, within the past year a new oleander supplement Rose Laurel OPC Plus is now being sold and distributed from within the U.S. - and it is made by the same pharmaceutical manufacturing company that makes Sutherlandia OPC

With so many compounds working together, it may be a very long time, if ever, before all the synergistic compounds which make oleander work are identified. What has been identified is that oleander works and works very well indeed.

Note: The oleander plant is highly toxic in raw form and no one should try to make their own home remedy without following exact instructions which can be found at:

Sources for this article included:

"Bioactive cardenolides from the stems and twigs of Nerium oleander."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17595134

"Bioactive pregnanes from Nerium oleander"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1725384

The Newman Studies on Oleander
http://www.tbyil.com/Oleander_Case_Reports_Studies.htm