Validation of cervical cancer-related efficacy and publication in overseas journals

Dr. Lee’s joint research was to re-examine ancient Korean traditional herbal medicine through modern science and to seek out cervical cancer therapy from the native plants in Korea, which anyone can use without financial burden. Cervical cancer progresses from normal epithelial cells to intraepithelial dysplasia, intraepithelial cancers, and invasive cervical cancer. It is highly notorious for a malignant disease with a long process characteristic taking about 10-15 years to develop into cancer. According to Dr. Lee, continuous ingestion of good ingredients suppressing cancers can inhibit the growth of cervical cancer cells and reduce mortality.  However, no food supplements targeting cancers are in the current market.

Dr. Lee noted that Cudrania tricuspidata, a deciduous shrub presumed to be a Korean peninsula, has not been scientifically proven about its excellent efficacy despite Korean ancient medical text recorded it for female disease treatments. Thus, he had studied its efficacy with all parts of the tree such as fruit, stem, and leaf.

In order to accelerate this research from the earliest, Dr. Lee has commissioned the researcher  of the Food and Biotechnology Department of Chungbuk National University (professor Hun-Sang Jeong) to extract  the plant and analyze the fraction, submitted its paper about the efficacy  of the substances to overseas journals through the Cell Biology and Immunochemistry Laboratory (professor Do-young Yun, Konkuk University) specialized in cervical  cancer research,  and then secured the intellectual property rights of the substances to discover and formulate new drug substances through the Medical Research Center of Innovative Cancer Therapeutics Center (Director, JinTae Hong) which has commercialization experience and professional manpower as a convergence system.

"It was the first year of my high school. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer at the end of leukemia and finally came back home. My father heard that there was a famous oriental doctor in Ganghwa Island that healed even terminal cancer from someone at the hospital. He went there to rescue herbal medicines worth more than USD 1,000 for the present value of money. I still remember watching my parent carefully boiling herbal medicine near the pottery with a sincere heart, just like saying that it is effective through the heart.

At that time, I really believed that my grandmother would be cured without any doubt. But could it be possible that my grandmother who had no food at the time had swallowed the bitter medicine? Only getting worse, she had vomited everything and was even more painful. Thinking about it now, I doubt the authenticity of the doctor, but I cannot erase the idea that he was a bad businessman. Pretending to be a doctor, did he not treat drugs for his patients, but made unconscionable money for his own personal profit. "

Dr. Lee says that a TV program saying what ingredients are good for a disease is a bigger problem. "Food should never be toxic due to the normal intake of the general public. If toxicity appears, it no longer belongs to the category of food, but to the regulation of toxic substances, which limits distribution. However, TV broadcasts are misinformed that certain foods have a therapeutic effect.  Therefore, the public will naturally fall into the plausible story of 'traditional secrets' and 'alternative medicine'. In addition, those who abuse it exaggerate it as a mysterious drug as a means of profit.

Develop indicator materials as a general food as well as new drug candidates and health functional substances

Dr. Lee is going to develop these key pharmacological indicators as new drug candidates and health functional substances. But he has aspirations to produce a traditional food called "the scent of life sciences – Traditional confectionary," a health food that blends the mixed extracts with traditional taffy technology to make it affordable for everyone at the moment.

For example, in the case of Chlorogenic acid, which is one of the various components of mixed extracts, it has already been reported that, through previous studies, it had various cancer inhibitory effects such as lung cancer and colorectal cancer antiaging/antioxidant effects and to prevent dementia / Alzheimer's disease by producing AGF-1 (insulin like growth factor-1).

I gave a few people a handmade Taffy in order not stick to the teeth with these mixed extracts, they really showed an explosive positive response. Everyone was very puzzled that I would supply these products at a regular price in a situation where it was not easy to buy traditional handmade rice taffy.  After that, I got a suggestion from a large distribution company and there was also a proposal to provide the research fund in exchange for the sales rights in China. " However, Dr. Lee has no intention of producing the mixed extracts as an expensive functional food, rather than a general handmade traditional food by making a direct dealing at a reasonable price for all the public. Therefore, he plans to produce only a limited number of pre-orders at affordable prices, to provide economically difficult elderly and cancer patients under treatment, and to donate products made with proceeds to relief organizations to deliver to economically difficult people.

After combining his findings with traditional foods, Dr. Lee has another new dream. It is to help differentiate and / or enhance Korean traditional food with functionalities and advance overseas. According to Dr. Lee 's research, there is a taffy in China similar to Korean one in the manufacturing method, but its material is corn rather than rice, and Asian countries including Russia and Vietnam are all made of sugarcane and close to sugar candy.

Moreover, since Japanese rice candy is a form of jam in the rice cake, it is said that the traditional Taffy in solid form made of rice does not exist in the world other than Korea.

In particular, comparing to the chocolate energy bar made of a refined sugar with fructose and glucose, the maltose in Korean taffy combined of two glucoses has an excellent function in terms of health aspect and enables to supply quick energy to brain and cell "He said.

If Korean Taffy is introduced to overseas as a representative Korean traditional product by adding natural extract ingredients of plant which has inhibitory effect on cervical cancer, various cancers, and senile dementia, Korean Taffy will be competitive enough to be a substitute with caramel or candy products which are hostile as the main causes of obesity.

Dr. Lee is planning to spread these technologies widely and he has already applied for intellectual property rights so that others cannot commerce the research results like cancer drugs for profit only.

He also established a startup company called "PharmaTeksol" (www.pharmateksol.science) in a corporate research building operated by the Chungbuk Industrial-University Convergence Headquarters in Osong, Chungbuk, where the Korean FDA is located.

In the future, the company plans to officially conduct the business from the extract fraction to the production and management of traditional handmade taffy named “Traditional Korean Donkwa” through pre-order.