BAX and hepatocellular carcinoma: Work by Hou et al. on the extraction of Picrasma quassioides, dehydrocrenatidine (DEC), a β-carboline alkaloid, exhibits outstanding growth inhibitory activity against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells both in vitro and in vivo through inducing apoptosis, as evidenced by the decreases in mitochondrial membrane potential, the mitochondrial dysfunction and the changes in apoptosis-related proteins, like Bax and Bcl-2 [70].