Kolkata: In a major breakthrough in global cancer studies, a group of scientists in Kolkata has struck upon a molecule in betel (paan) leaf that targets and kills leukemia cells and holds the promise of becoming the world's first herb-based, cheap therapeutic drug for blood cancer.

A multi-disciplinary team from CSIR's premier lab Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) is ecstatic with the serendipitous find since there is just one exorbitant drug currently available across the world for the treatment of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML), a severe type of blood cancer.

The molecule, identified as Chlorogenic Acid, code-named ICB-101 throughout the three-year hush-hush study, came as a chance discovery while the team was conducting immuno-modulatory studies on betel leaf and its effect on human cell lines.

"We found that Chlorogenic acid induced programmed cell death in human cancer cells transplanted in experimental nude mice," immunologist and team leader Santu Bandyopadhyay said today (Jul 30, 2004).

The 12-member team, comprising IICB Director and cell biologist Prof Samir Bhattacharya, drug designer Chhabinath Mandal, medical chemist Bikas Pal, animal scientist Aditya Konar, haematologists Dillip Bhattacharya and Utpal Chaudhuri and a number of laboratory aides, has applied for US and global patents for the molecule.

The path breaking work, to be published in the journal 'Blood' in October, has been given a verbal go-ahead for immediate multi-centric human trials in the country by Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr N K Ganguly, the team disclosed.