A History of Screening for Natural Products to Fight Cancer

In the middle of the 20th century, the National Cancer Institute began testing plant extracts for chemotherapeutic potential—helping to discover some drugs still in use today.

Written byJef Akst

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SCREEN TIME: By 1950, Jonathan Hartwell (right) and his team were regularly screening plant extracts sent to the National Cancer Institute by botanists. Initially, the NCI investigators tested the crude extracts in mice harboring natural mouse tumors. Over the next few decades, their methods evolved with the technology to include human cancer cell lines and immunosuppressed mice that carried human cancers. (Upon request from The Scientist, the NCI tried to identify the pharmacy technician in the photo, but could not find her name.)FLICKR, NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

Update (June 13): Upon asking readers on social media for help in identifying the mystery researcher in the photo, The Scientist has identified her as biochemist Sylvy Kornberg. Read about her life.

Organic chemist Jonathan Hartwell joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to head up a natural products division in 1938, not long after the agency was founded. He’d read plenty of folklore about how plants had healed various ailments over the centuries, and wanted to identify compounds that might have chemotherapeutic potential. So he put out a call to researchers to collect plants from all over the world and send him extracts for testing.

In 1955, the NCI set up the Cancer Chemotherapy National Service Center to investigate all manner of compounds with potential ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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