One study proved that it couldn't just be mineral content in herbs that lowers glucose levels. Another suggested that alternative medicine practitioners should not change a patient's insulin dosage. Not only is it illegal, but it's dangerous, and has resulted in patient going into diabetic comas.

How to Take These Herbs

I would advise against combining herbs listed above without professional advice. Please see an herbalist trained for years and certified by some licensing or professional body before taking any herbs. Herbs could interact with your medications, or with one another. Each of these three traditions has wisdom, experience, and research behind their

References:

Marcus AO. Safety of drugs commonly used to treat hypertension, dyslipidemia, and type 2 diabetes (the metabolic syndrome): part 1. Diabetes Technol Ther. 2000 Spring;2(1):101-10. Review. Harrigan RA, Nathan MS, Beattie P. Oral agents for treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: pharmacology, toxicity, and treatment. Ann Emerg Med. 2001 Jul;38(1):68-78. Review. Cheng JT, Liu IM, Chi TC, Su HC, Chang CG. Metformin-like effects of Quei Fu Di Huang Wan, a Chinese herbal mixture, on streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat. Horm Metab Res. 2001 Dec;33(12):727-32. Qi C, Zhang G, Wan S, Chu B, Jiang A. [A study on action of tang niao kang decoction] Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 1997 Jun;22(6):370-1, back inside cover. Chinese. Vuksan V, Sievenpiper JL, Koo VY, Francis T, Beljan-Zdravkovic U, Xu Z, Vidgen E. Related Articles American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L) reduces postprandial glycemia in nondiabetic subjects and subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Arch Intern Med. 2000 Apr 10;160(7):1009-13. Kar A, Choudhary BK, Bandyopadhyay NG. Related Articles Preliminary studies on inorganic constituents of some indigenous hypoglycaemic herbs on oral glucose tolerance test. J Ethnopharmacol. 1999 Feb;64(2):179-84. Waltner-Law ME, Wang XL, Law BK, Hall RK, Nawano M, Granner DK. Epigallocatechin gallate, a constituent of green tea, represses hepatic glucose production. J Biol Chem. 2002 Jul 12 [epub ahead of print] Sheweita SA, Newairy AA, Mansour HA, Yousef MI. Effect of some hypoglycemic herbs on activity of phase I and II drug-metabolizing enzymes in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Toxicology. 2002 May 24;174(2):131-9. Takahashi N, Kawada T, Goto T, Yamamoto T, Taimatsu A, Matsui N, Kimura K, Saito M, Hosokawa M, Miyashita K, Fushiki T. Dual action of isoprenols from herbal medicines on both PPARgamma and PPARalpha in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and HepG2 hepatocytes. FEBS Lett. 2002 Mar 13;514(2-3):315-22. Nishizawa M, Sutherland WH, Nukada H. Gosha-jinki-gan (herbal medicine) in streptozocin-induced diabetic neuropathy. J Neurol Sci. 1995 Oct;132(2):177-81. Liang XC, Guo SS, Qian ZF, Hong G, Tao LH, Wang Y, Zhu SY. Effects of Chinese medicinal herbs on hemorheology in diabetics. Proc Chin Acad Med Sci Peking Union Med Coll. 1989;4(3):135-8. Dey L, Attele AS, Yuan CS. Alternative therapies for type 2 diabetes. Altern Med Rev. 2002 Feb;7(1):45-58. Review. Flaws B, Sionneau P. The Treatment of Modern Western Medical Diseases with Chinese Medicine: A Textbook and Clinical Manual. 2001. Blue Poppy Press.

In phase III clinical trials, VP-16 (from podophyllum berberidaceae) has caused responses in a number of cancers including breast cancer (ibid, 60). (11)

More Science:

A quick search of PubMed for more research on herbs for breast cancer yielded 4 interesting results:

Huang lian (coptis) inhibited tumor growth (gastric, colon, breast)... "These results indicate that traditional Chinese herbs may represent a new source of agents designed for selective inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases in cancer therapy." (12)

Hemsleya amabilis extract significantly inhibited tumor cell growth and colony formation and promoted tumor cell death.(13)

Triptolide (TPL), a diterpenoid triepoxide purified from Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, in vitro inhibited proliferation and colony formation of tumor cells and antitumor effect of TPL was comparable or superior with that of conventional antitumor drugs, such as Adriamycin, mitomycin, and cisplatin. (14)

Huang qi root specifically inhibits gastric cancer cells growth in vitro - its mechanism is mainly inhibition of cancer cell growth, not attacking or dismantling of existing cancer cells. (15)

Chinese Herbal Formulas for Breast Cancer (For Practitioner Reference)

My final source is a book called Treating Cancer with Chinese Herbs (Hsu, Ohai Press, 1990). This book is mainly for practitioners to learn from and use. It is not scientifically referenced - of course, some Chinese physicians and writers are not familiar with Western insistence on always quoting your sources, so some of this information may have science behind it. We just can't tell from Hsu's book. But here's a suggestion patients can try at home:

Combine juice of 90g of fresh asparagus (or 30g peeled) with yellow wine (a traditional Chinese wine made from rice) once a day.

References:

1.Eckert K, Grabowska E, Stange R, et al. Effects of oral bromelain administrations on impaired immunocytoxicity of mononuclear cells from mammary tumors. Oncol Rep 1999 Nov-Dec; 6(6):1191-9. 2.Poulter JM, White WF, Dickerson JW. Ascorbic acid supplementation and five year survival rates in women with breast cancer. Acta Vitaminol Enzymol 1984; 6(3):175-82. 3.Murata A, Morishige F, Yamaguchi H. Prolongation of survival times of terminal cancer patients by administration of large doses of ascorbate. Int J Vitam Nutr Res Suppl 1982; 23:103-13. 4.Kupin VI, Polevaia EB. [Stimulation of immunological reactivity of cancer patients by Eleuthrococcus extract.] Vopr Onkol 1986; 32(7):21-6. 5.Saxe GA, Rock CL, Wisha MS, Schottenfield D. Diet and risk for breast cancer recurrence and survival. Breast Cancer Res Treat 1999 Feb; 53(3):241-53. 6.Klaschka F. Oral Enzymes in Oncology: Clinical studies on Wobe-MuGos. MUCOS Pharma GmbH, 1997. http://www.mucos.de 7.Shao Y, Pardini L, Pardini RS. Dietary menhaden oil enhances mitomycin C antitumor activity toward human mammary carcinoma MX-1. Lipids 1995 Nov; 30(11):1035-45. 8.This refers to 7 studies, referenced in shorter style: Ravid A. Cancer Res 1999 Feb 15; 59(4):862-7. Studzinski GP. J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 Apr; 76(4):641-8. Moffatt KA. Clin Cancer Res 1999 Mar; 5(3):695-703. Vink-van Wijngaarden T. Breast Cancer Res Treat 1994 Feb; 29(2):161-8. Saunders DE. Gynecol Oncol 1993 Nov; 51(2):155-9. Cho YL. Cancer Res 1991 Jun 1; 51(11):2848-53. Tanaka H. Clin Orthop 1989 Oct; (247):290-6. 9.There were promising Phase I trials on maytansine against breast cancer in 1980's, but phase II trials were disappointing. 10.Juret P, Heron JF, Couette JE, Delozier T, Le Talaer JY. Hydroxy-9-methyl-2-ellipticinium for osseous metastases from breast cancer: a 5-year experience. Cancer Treat Rep. 1982 Nov; 66(11): 1909-16. 11.Slayton RE, Blessing JA, Delgado G. Phase II trial of etoposide in management of advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma: a Gynecologic Oncology Group Study. Cancer Treat Rep. 1982 Aug; 66(8): 1669-71. No abstract available. 12.Li XK, Motwani M, Tong W, Bornmann W, Schwartz GK. Huanglian, A chinese herbal extract, inhibits cell growth by suppressing expression of cyclin B1 and inhibiting CDC2 kinase activity in human cancer cells. Mol Pharmacol. 2000 Dec; 58(6): 1287-93. 13.Wu J, Wu Y, Yang BB. Anticancer activity of Hemsleya amabilis extract. Life Sci. 2002 Sep 20; 71(18): 2161-70. 14.Yang S, Chen J, Guo Z, Xu XM, Wang L, Pei XF, Yang J, Underhill CB, Zhang L. Triptolide inhibits growth and metastasis of solid tumors. Mol Cancer Ther. 2003 Jan; 2(1): 65-72. 15.Lin J, Dong HF, Oppenheim JJ, Howard OM. Effects of astragali radix on growth of different cancer cell lines. World J Gastroenterol. 2003 Apr; 9(4): 670-3.