Role of plants in anticancer drug discovery
Volume 7, February 2014, Pages 173–181
- a Department of Chemistry, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028, South Africa
- b Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0028, South Africa
Highlights
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Cancer is second deadly disease after cardiovascular diseases.
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There is a tremendous need to discover novel safer and more effective anticancer agents.
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Plants serve as a basis for promising therapeutic agents for cancer treatment.
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Important plant derived anticancer agents have been discussed here.
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Some potential plant derived lead molecules have also been discussed.
Abstract
Cancer is one of the major causes of death and the number of new cases, as well as the number of individuals living with cancer, is expanding continuously. Worldwide the alarming rise in mortality rate due to cancer has fuelled the pursuit for effective anticancer agents to combat this disease. Finding novel and efficient compounds of natural origin has been a major point of concern for research in the pharmaceutical sciences. Plants have been seen to possess the potential to be excellent lead structures and to serve as a basis of promising therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. Many successful anti-cancer drugs currently in use or their analogues are plant derived and many more are under clinical trials. This review aims to highlight the invaluable role that plants have played, and continue to play, in the discovery of anticancer agents.
