**4.2. Chinese medicines and their active compounds for inducing liver cancer cells differentiation**

Panaxydol is one of the bioactive components in Panax Notoginseng (Sanqi in TCM). Panax Notoginseng is a famous hemostatic in TCM and it can also relieve other blood disorders, such as blood stasis or blood deficiency. Recent studies have shown that the panaxydol could induce cell differentiation in human HCC cell lines SMMC‐7721 [36]. Ultrastructure morphology observation confirmed that there have obvious cell morphologic changes after panaxydol treatment. The activity of several differentiation related proteins such as alkaline phosphatase and albumin were increased, while AFP activity was significantly decreased after panaxydol treatment. These results showed that panaxydol may be a potential antihepatoma agent by inducing tumor cell differentiation.

Gepsin can also inhibit liver cancer development by inducing cancer cells differentiation. Studies showed that after gepsin treatment, the HCC cell line Bel‐7402 presents ultrastructural morphology of differentiation. Western blot results revealed that the differentiation related proteins such as the AFP protein secretion significantly decreased, while ALB protein expres‐ sion was obviously up‐regulated on gepsin‐treated cancer cells [34].

Ginseng is one of the most widely used herbs in TCM for thousands of years. Ginsenosides are the main bio‐active components in Ginseng. There are many reports verified the anticancer effect of ginsenosides *in vitro* and *in vivo*. For example, ginsenosides‐Rh2 (G‐Rh2) can inhibit the proliferation of SMMC‐7721 cells as well as induce the mature and normality of cell ultrastructure morphology. The expression of AFP, gamma‐GT and heat‐resistant ALP were also significantly decreased after 10 mg/ml G‐Rh2 treatment [37].
