Beating Cancer with Natural Plant Sources

Medicinal plants continue to play a central role in the healthcare system of large proportions of the world's population. This is particularly true in developing countries, where herbal medicine has a long and uninterrupted history of use. Continuous usage of herbal medicine by a large proportion of the population in the developing countries is largely due to the high cost of Western pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Every year, millions of people are diagnosed with cancer, leading to death in a majority of the cases. Specific part of it is formulated into suitable preparations compressed as tablets or made into pills, used to make infusions, extracts, tinctures, etc., or mixed with excipients to make lotions, ointments, creams, etc. Few herbal drugs are subject to legislative control. The plant based drug discovery resulted mainly in the development of anticancer agents including plants (vincristine, vinblastine, etoposide, paclitaxel, camptothecin, topotecan and irinotecan). Beside this there is numerous agents identified from fruits and vegetables can used in anticancer therapy. The agents include curcumin (turmeric), resveratrol (red grapes, peanuts and berries), genistein (soybean), diallyl sulfide, S-allyl cysteine (allium), allicin (garlic), lycopene (tomato), capsaicin (red chilli), diosgenin, 6-gingerol (ginger), ellagic acid (pomegranate), ursolic acid (apple, pears), silymarin (milk thistle), anethol, catechins, eugenol, indole-3-carbinol, limonene, beta carotene, and dietary fiber. In this review active principle derived from natural products are offering a great opportunity to evaluate not only totally new chemical classes of anticancer agents, but also novel lead compound and potentially relevant mechanisms of action.