The substance, called "Fu'antai" in Chinese, is known by experts from the Zhanjiang Marine University to have antiblastic effects on cervical carcinoma, stomach cancer, rhinocarnoma and leukemia cells, said Yu Lijian, a research fellow from the university, at the International Symposium on Strategies for the Integrated Marine Resources Exploitation in the South China Sea.

The feasibility study on mass production of the substance, which is extracted from marine creatures living in the sea area near Zhanjiang City, is currently under way at the university. The expert did not give the name of the material.

Another new cancer drug found through research on marine organisms, codenamed K-001, has just received approval from the State Drug Administration, said sources from the meeting.

Marine medicine research has been highlighted as part of the country's strategic high-tech development of marine resources. Chinese experts have also built three DNA databanks on the poison glands of sea snakes.

At the symposium, some experts proposed that a cancer prevention measure can be applied, by making use of the anti-cancer effects of sepia, which is odorless and flavorless. Sepia can be added during the production stage foods, such as noodles, bread and cookies.

With 80 percent of all organisms living in the sea, marine resources are believed to hold cures for many diseases, which seem incurable at the moment.

Human beings first discovered the medical effects of marine resources, such as the pain killer in rabbitfish poison and sea snake sepia, some 2,000 years ago.

At present, tumor drugs extracted from sponge have become widely used. A leukemia drug is extracted from dolabella auricularia.

Cancer is the disease responsible for the most human deaths. Some 6 million people die of cancer, and another 10 million are diagnosed with cancer every year.

(Xinhua 12/05/2000)