A powerful, relatively new cancer drug called Maytansine is derived from evergreen. The drug is shown to inhibit mitosis of cancer cells when associated with tumor-targeting antibodies.
Fluorescence microscopy image of abnormal mitotic spindles in four breast cancer cells that were treated with antibody-linked maytansine. The chromosomes (blue) are not able to arrange in normal symmetrical functional spindles because the dynamics of the microtubules (green) are inhibited by the drug. The drug-treated cells cannot divide and ultimately die.
Photo Credit: Emin Oroudjev, UC Santa Barbara
(Source: ia.ucsb.edu)
