Abstract
The use of anti-inflammatory natural products to treat inflammatory disorders for cancer prevention and therapy is an appealing area of interest in the last decades. Annona muricata L. is one of the many plant extracts that have been explored owing to their anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. Different parts of A. muricata especially the leaves have been used for various ethnomedicinal purposes by traditional healers to treat several diseases including cancer, inflammation, diabetes, liver diseases, and abscesses. Some of these experience-based claims on the use of the plant have been transformed into evidence-based information by scientific investigations. The leaves of the plant have been extensively investigated for its diverse pharmacological aspects and found eminent for anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. However, most studies were not on the bioactive isolates which were responsible for the activities but were based on crude extracts of the plant. In this comprehensive review, all significant findings from previous investigations till date on the leaves of A. muricata, specifically on their anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities have been compiled. The toxicology of the plant which has been shown to be due to the presence of neurotoxic annaceous acetogenins and benzyltetrahydro-isoquinoline alkaloids has also been updated to provide recent information on its safety aspects. The present knowledge of the plant has been critically assessed, aimed at providing direction toward improving its prospect as a source of potential anti-inflammatory and anticancer agents. The analysis will provide a new path for ensuring research on this plant to discover new agents to treat inflammatory diseases and cancer. Further in vitro and in vivo studies should be carried out to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying their anti-inflammatory responses in relation to anticancer activity and more detail toxicity study to ensure they are safe for human consumption. Sufficient preclinical data and safety data generated will allow clinical trials to be pursued on this plant and its bioactive compounds.
Highlights
Inflammation, owing to central element of innate immunity and inflammatory response serve as a protective mechanism emerged in higher animals in order to defend them against injury and infection
Notwithstanding, if there is unabating inflammation or if the system fails to return to normal homeostasis it eventually leads to chronic inflammation which is identified as a root cause in the development of a variety of chronic inflammatory and immune-related diseases (Arshad et al, 2017a)
In an in vitro study conducted on the fruit of A. muricata there was substantial repression of breast cancer cells growth (MDAMB-468) as well as the selective suppression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with IC50 of 4.8 μg/mL, while on non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial cells (MCF-10A) there was no effect (Dai et al, 2011)
Summary
Inflammation, owing to central element of innate immunity and inflammatory response serve as a protective mechanism emerged in higher animals in order to defend them against injury and infection. In reaction to any tissue damage, a multifactorial network of chemical signals is initiated in the human body which keep the host body response and repair the impaired tissue This multifactorial network encompasses activation and migration of different inflammatory cells i.e., monocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils from the venous system to sites of injury. In Indonesia, the plant is called sirsak or nangka belanda, while it is known as graviola in Portuguese and guanabana in Latin American It is recognized by other indigenous names such as annone, anona, graviola, araticum grande, araticum-manso, coronsol, corossol épineux, grand corossol, coração-de-rainha, guanábana, guanábano, gurúsulu, jaca-do-pará, kaoraosaly’ jaca-de-pobre, cachiman épineux, mkononono, anoda, pumo, puntar waihia, quanabana, saput, sauersack, stachelannone, taggannona, and zuurzak. The decoction of the leaves is applied topically for its anti-rheumatic and neuralgic effects, and to reduce abscesses (Adewole and Caxton-Martins, 2006; de Souza et al, 2009; FIGURE 1 | Annona muricata L. (A) Whole plant (B) Leaves (C) Flowers (D) Fruits (E) Seeds
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