Anticancer plant garden

Cancer is a major health concern in the world. Consequently there is considerable interest from the population in the progress of research on new therapeutic drugs. It is one of scientists' tasks to make current research understandable to everybody and to share their knowledge with the public. To this aim we have created the “Anticancer Plant Garden”, a pedagogic garden located in Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Brittany, France. Its goals are to illustrate the importance of plants as a source of potent anticancer drugs, to enhance the public awareness on the interest in protecting and studying Nature as a unique, yet fragile, source of novel medications, and to tell the emulating stories of researchers who discovered natural products based therapeutic drugs. The garden will present plants from which molecules are currently used in cancer chemotherapy, plants with antitumor properties still under investigation, plants used as adjuvants, plants which are reported to provide some prevention towards the development of cancers and plants producing carcinogenic compounds. The project is accompanied by a website, a booklet which will present plants, active principles and brief history of their discovery, and a more detailed book on potential anticancer plants. The garden will also accommodate conferences and photography exhibits on plants, cancer issues, prevention and protection of natural resources. The project communication will be carried out by a PhD student preparing a thesis on the discovery of the anticancer drugs Taxotère® and Navelbine®. The garden is supported by the “Association JPAC”. Information is validated by several scientific experts.