Most of the recent scientific work on this traditional Chinese herb and its analogues has been done, not surprisingly, in the Far East.
July 14, 2006 edition of Biochemistry and Pharmacology
Researchers in Singapore showed that andrographolide , a lactone isolated from Andrographis paniculata, caused apoptosis or cell death in human cancer cells. The mechanism of cell death was the activation of caspase 8 which signalled cell death to the mitochondria and then to downstream effector caspases.
April 21, 2006 edition of Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry