Title:Natural Products as Anticancer Agents
Volume: 22
Issue: 11
Author(s): Ruby Varghese and Yogesh B. Dalvi*
Affiliation:
- Pushpagiri Research Centre, Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Tiruvalla, Kerala- 689101,India
Keywords:
Angiogenesis, apoptosis, cancer, inflammatory cytokines, metastasis, reactive oxygen species.
Abstract: Medicinal plants and mushrooms have always fascinated the world as an attractive
source of natural compounds for cancer therapy. From ancient times, they have been valued as
gourmet food and folk medicine in Oriental practice. For over 40 years, the world has witnessed
the overwhelming interest of the western scientific fraternity in the pharmaceutical potential of natural
products in combating cancer. The plants and mushrooms credited with success against angiogenesis
and cancer metastasis belong to certain Plants, including Catharanthus roseus, Aloe
Vera,Annona muricata,Curcuma longa, Withania somnifera, and Berberis and mushrooms such as
Agaricus, Antrodia, Ganoderma, Grifolafrondosa, Hericiumerinaceus, Phellinuslinteus, and Trametesversicolor
Coriolusversicolor. The anti-cancer compounds play a pivotal role as a free radical
scavenger and reactive oxygen species inducer, mitotic spindle kinase inhibitor, anti-mitotic, angiogenesis
inhibitor, topoisomerase inhibitor, apoptosis inducers, and eventually checking cancer invasion,
migration and proliferation. The present review updates and focuses on the recent findings of
the pharmacologically potential bioactive compounds, their anti-tumor potential, and underlying
mechanism of preventing cancer metastasis and angiogenesis in order to raise knowledge for further
investigations to develop cancer therapeutics with no adverse side effects The mounting experimental
evidence at pre-clinical and clinical levels from various research groups across the globe, regarding
prevention of cancer metastasis by natural products unarguably make it a fast-track research
area worth mass attention.
