Globally, cancer has become a second major cause of human mortality rate,
which significantly affects the human population. Therefore a constant demand is kept
for new therapies to treat and cure this severe disease. Due to less toxic side effects in
comparison to existing treatment such as chemotherapy, herbal medicine has been
drawn consideration in many disease cure and treatment. Now with due attention,
traditional medicine from herbal plants are admired for cancer treatment as of their
potent anticancer effects. Plant secondary metabolites such as polyphenols, flavonoids,
among others, have potent anti-cancer properties and have been explored for cancer
treatment for centuries. Many studies have revealed that these secondary metabolites
possess effective anticancer activities by exhibiting several different mechanisms such
as; antioxidant activity, apoptosis induction, target specificity, prevention to DNA
damage, cell cycle regression, angiogenesis prevention. Therefore, herbal plants and
their naturally derived compounds become potential drugs for cancer cure and
treatment.
Keywords: Alkaloids, Brassinosteroids, Cancer, Curcuma, Herbal Medicine,
Plant-based Drugs, Plant Metabolites, Traditional Medicine.
