Abstract
Cancer is the main cause of death worldwide. Chemotherapeutic agents used for disease treatments have shown limited antitumor activity, with a high recurrence rate. It has prompted the research efforts to identify anti-tumor compounds. Research on medicinal plants began to focus on discovery of natural products as potential leads to antitumor drugs. Medicinal plants are very interesting, have the ability to produce remarkable chemical structures with diverse biological activities. Plant-derived natural products have been used by human societies for millennia, and their biological source is most likely available and can be employed for production, have been considered as valuable sources for antitumor drugs. Many interesting natural products with biological activity are evidenced in the past few years. This review highlights the potential of natural compounds as candidates for antitumor drugs. A brief illustration of the sources and general biological effects of the main classes of plant-derived natural compounds and related molecules are also provided.
Highlights
IntroductionMalignancy is serious disease condition which endangers people's lives and health
Malignancy is serious disease condition which endangers people's lives and health (Hakimzadeh, Ghazanfari, Received: 2 February 2014 / Accepted: 18 March 2014 / Published online: 2 April 2014© Horizon e-Publishing GroupCITATION Zhou, Y., Zhang, A., Sun, H., Yan, G., & Wang, X. (2014)
All of them were evaluated for their cytotoxic activities against human cancer cell lines
Summary
Malignancy is serious disease condition which endangers people's lives and health Throughout medical history, plants have been main resources in traditional medicine and natural products are considered as important sources for antitumor drugs (Zhang et al, 2010; Wang et al, 2012). With the intensive need for the development of more effective and safer agents for chemoprevention and therapy of human tumor, natural products from plants have been expected to play significant roles in creating new and better chemopreventive and therapeutic agents (Mans, da Rocha, & Schwartsmann, 2000). The tumor preventive or protective activities of the various natural products lie in their effects on cellular defences or by targeting the key transcription factors like nuclear factor kappa B, activator protein, signal transducers and activators of transcription and others (Butler, 2008; Pan, Ghai, & Ho, 2008; Aravindaram, & Yang, 2010; Tosetti, Noonan, & Albini, 2009). This review will focus on anti-tumor research, and provide insights into the value of natural products for therapeutic areas
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