all the herbs used in the present invention are commercially available . after ascertaining the authenticity of the individual herbs , traditional methods may be used to process the composition of the present invention into a form suitable for administering to human subjects . those conventional methods are known to people skilled in the art , described in books and commonly used by practitioners of herbal medicine . by way of example , not limitation , a suitable administering form can be tinctures , decoctions , or dry extracts . extracts may be further process into pills , tablets , capsules or injections . a tincture is prepared by suspending herbs in a solution of alcohol , such as , wine or liquor . after a period time of suspension , the liquid ( the alcohol solution ) may been administered two or three times a day , one teaspoon each time . a decoction is the most common form of herbal preparations . it is traditionally prepared in a clay pot , but nowadays it can also be prepared in glass , enamel or stainless steel containers . the herbs should be soaked for a period of time in a proper amount of water and then quickly brought to a boil and simmered until the amount of water is reduced by half . an extract is a concentrated preparation of the essential constituents of the medicinal herb . typically , the essential constituents are extracted from the herbs by suspending the herbs in an appropriate choice of solvent , typically , water , ethanol / water mixture , methanol , butanol , iso - butanol , acetone , hexane , petroleum ether or other organic solvents . the extracting process may be further facilitated by means of maceration , percolation , repercolation , counter - current extraction , turbo - extraction , or by carbon - dioxide hypercritical ( temperature / pressure ) extraction . after filtration to rid of herb debris , the extracting solution may be further evaporated and thus concentrated to yield a soft extract ( extractum spissum ) and / or eventually a dried extract , extracum siccum , by means of spray drying , vacuum oven drying , fluid - bed drying or freeze - drying . the soft extract or dried extract may be further dissolved in a suitable liquid to a desired concentration for administering or processed into a form such as pills , capsules , injections , etc . as a particular embodiment of the present invention , a polysaccharide - enriched extract is prepared for each herbal ingredient . the extraction process is described below in detail . ten grams of an herb was cut into pieces and boiled 2 times sequentially with 5 volumes of water , 30 minutes each time . the soluble fraction (˜ 50 ml ) was filtered by filter paper and the filtrate was the total extract of the herb . polysaccharide - enriched and non - polysaccharide - enriched extracts were prepared by the following protocol : fifty milliliters (˜ 50 ml ) of the total extract were added to 3 volumes of 100 % ethanol . the mixture was incubated at 4 ° c . overnight , and centrifuged at 3 , 000 × g at 4 ° c . for 10 minutes . the supernatant was filtered and the filtered supernatant became the non - polysaccharide - enriched extract , whereas the pellet was the polysaccharide - enriched extract . all three extracts were concentrated by a rotary evaporator rotavapor ® ( brinkmann , westbury , n . y .) and were dried to powder form with freeze - dryer . appropriate concentration of each extract was obtained by dissolving the powder with an amount of water suitable for the heparanase activity assay . the polysaccharide - enriched extracts were then tested for their abilities to inhibit heparanase . in order to determine anti - heparanase activity by the extract , a heparanase activity assay was carried out to determine the activity of a heparanase in the presence of the extract . the heparanase activity can be compared to a control , e . g ., the activity of the same heparanase determined by the same activity assay but with the absence of the extract . in general , any suitable heparanase activity assay would allow determination of inhibitory effect on heparanase by an extract . there are many known assay protocols for determine heparanase activity . although such assays are not part of the present invention , the following information is provided for easy reference . a typical heparanase catalytic activity assay involves radiolabelling a substrate ( either in vitro or metabolically ) and analyzing the degraded products due to heparanase catalytic activity ( vlodavsky i . et al ., ( 1992 ) expression of heparanase by platelets and circulating cells of the immune system : possible involvement in diapedesis and extravasation , invasion & amp ; metastasis , 12 : 112 - 127 ; bartlett m . r . underwood p . a . et al ., ( 1995 ) comparative analysis of the ability of leukocytes , endothelial cells and platelets to degrade the subendothelial basement membrane : evidence for cytokine dependence and detection of a novel sulfatase , immunol . cell biol ., 73 : 113 - 124 ). as part of the effort of searching effective herbal formulations for cancer treatment , a large number of herbs used in traditional chinese medicine are studied for their anti - heparanase effect . for each herb , three types of preparations , namely , total extract ( te ), polsaccharide - enriched extract ( per ), non - polysaccharide - enriched extract ( nper ), were made according to the process described in the foregoing . table 1 summarizes the research data on 150 medicinal herbs . in addition to the above study on individual herbs , synergistic effects between two individual herbs when used in combination were also examined . as shown in fig1 , the ingredients of the composition of the present invention demonstrate a synergic effect in terms of their inhibitory action on heparanase . for example , the sum of heparanase inhibition by rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and radix sophora tonkinensis ( shandougen ) acting individually was about 32 . 5 % while it was 44 . 5 % when used in combination . for rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ) and radix sophora tonkinensis ( shandougen ), it was 21 % verses 38 . 5 %. for rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ), it was 28 . 5 % verses 40 . 5 %. the synergy was significant . in fig1 , the chinese characters indicate the each herb &# 39 ; s name in chinese . as a particular embodiment of the present invention , an anti - cancer herbal composition is provided herewith as an example . this composition contains the following ingredients : rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ), herba dendrobii nobile lindl . ( shihu ), rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ), rhizoma typhonii ( baifuzi ), radix sophora tonkinensis ( shandougen ), radix arnebia euchroma ( zicaogen ), frutus lycium barbarum ( gouqizi ), radix astagalus membranaceus ( huangqi ), herba oldenlandia diffusa ( baihuasheshecao ), rhizoma polygonati ( huangjing ) and radix glycyrrhizae ( gancao ). among them , rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ), herba dendrobii nobile lindl . ( shihu ), rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ), rhizoma typhonii ( baifuzi ) are essential ingredients and must be included in the composition , while the remaining listed herbs are optional , one or more of which may be omitted from the composition . an effective amount of each herb is used in the composition . the term “ effective amount ” means the amount of herbal ingredient will contribute towards the overall composition &# 39 ; s ability to provide the intended effect . the effective amount of each herb can be determined by people skilled in the art . the following dosage ranges ( for a single dose ) are provided for easy reference or guidance . dosages outside the described ranges may also be effective and provide satisfactory results . rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ): 5 - 50 grams , preferably about 15 grams ; herba dendrobii nobile lindl . ( shihu ): 5 - 50 grams , preferably about 10 grams ; rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ): 5 - 20 grams , preferably about 10 grams ; radix sophora tonkinensis ( shandougen ): 5 - 20 grams , preferably about 10 grams ; radix arnebia euchroma ( zicaogen ): 5 - 30 grams , preferably about 10 grams ; frutus lycium barbarum ( gouqizi ): 10 - 30 grams , preferably about 10 grams ; radix astagalus membranaceus ( huangqi ): 10 - 30 grams , preferably about 15 grams ; herba oldenlandia diffuse ( baihuasheshecao ): 20 - 40 grams , preferably about 30 grams ; as discussed in the above , by conventional or known methods to people skilled in the art , the herbal composition is further processed into one of the suitable forms for human consumption as a measure of treatment or prevention of cancers . the herbal ingredients of the composition may be mixed before being further processed . or , each ingredient is processed individually first and then the resulting processed ingredients , such as , for example , total extracts or polysaccharide - enriched extracts of each herb , are mixed according to the specified relative amounts . for example , if the amount of the total extract made from 5 - 50 grams of rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) is used in the composition , the amount of the total extract made from 5 - 20 grams of rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ) should be used to keep their relative amounts consistent with the above prescribed ranges . another particular embodiment of the present invention is defined by the relative amounts of its ingredients . it contains rhizoma curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ), herba dendrobii nobile lindl . ( shihu ), rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ), rhizoma typhonii ( baifuzi ), where the ratio between curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and herba dendrobii nobile lindl . ( shihu ) is from 0 . 1 to 10 by weight ; the ratio between curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and rhizoma pinelliae preparatum ( fabanxia ) is from 0 . 25 to 10 by weight ; the ratio between curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and rhizoma typhonii ( baifuzi ) is from 0 . 25 to 10 by weight . preferably , the above ratios are 0 . 5 - 5 , 1 . 0 - 5 . 0 , and 1 . 0 - 5 . 0 , respectively . more preferably , the above ratios are 1 . 5 , 1 . 5 , and 1 . 5 , respectively . the ratio of weight is determined before the herbs are processed . the above composition may optionally further comprise one or more herbs selected from the group consisting radix sophora tonkinensis ( shandougen ), radix arnebia euchroma ( zicaogen ), frutus lycium barbarum ( gouqizi ), radix astagalus membranaceus ( huangqi ), herba oldenlandia diffusa ( baihuasheshecao ), rhizoma polygonati ( huangjing ) and radix glycyrrhizae ( gancao ). when one or more optional herbs are present in the composition , the ratios ( by weight ) between curcumae kwangsiensis ( ezhu ) and the optional herbs are 0 . 25 - 10 , 0 . 16 - 10 , 0 . 16 - 5 . 0 , 0 . 16 - 5 . 0 , 0 . 125 - 2 . 5 , 0 . 1 - 2 . 5 , and 0 . 25 - 10 , respectively . preferably , the ratios are 0 . 5 - 5 , 0 . 3 - 5 , 0 . 3 - 2 . 5 , 0 . 3 - 2 . 5 , 0 . 25 - 1 , 0 . 2 - 1 and 0 . 5 - 5 , respectively . more preferably , the ratios are 1 . 5 , 1 . 5 , 1 . 5 , 1 , 0 . 5 , 0 . 5 , and 3 respectively . the ratio of weight is determined before the herbs are processed . while there have been described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof , it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes , in the form and details of the packages and methods illustrated , may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . for example , it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and / or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention . the invention is not limited by the embodiments described above which are presented as examples only but can be modified in various ways within the scope of protection defined by the appended patent claims .
a herbal composition containing curcumae kwangsiensis , herba dendrobii nobile lindl . , rhizoma pinelliae preparatum , rhizoma typhonii and other optional herbs . the composition can be processed into a form for administering to human patients with a cancerous disease for improving their health .