CASP3 and lung carcinoma: To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the pro-apoptotic activities of the EtOH extract of the sclerotia of P. cocos and its constituents in human lung cancer cells, we first explored their effects on the activation of caspase-3 (a major downstream effector caspase in the apoptotic pathway [32]) and the cleavage of its substrate PARP [33] in Calu-6 cells (Figure 6).