Malaysian herbs as potential natural resources of anticancer drugs: from folklore to discovery
Cancer is a complex disease and ranks as a leading cause of death globally. Despite many advances made in cancer therapeutics, adverse side effects and treatment resistance remain a great problem. In that sense, there are increasing demands to discover new anticancer agents from naturallyderived c...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Malaysian Society for Molecular Biology & Biotechnology
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/105701/7/105701_Malaysian%20herbs%20as%20potential%20natural.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/105701/8/105701_Malaysian%20herbs%20as%20potential%20natural_Scopus.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/105701/ http://www.msmbb.my/index.php/archive-issues/18-apjmbb/461-archive-issue-30 |
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| Institution: | Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia |
| Language: | English English |
| Summary: | Cancer is a complex disease and ranks as a leading cause of death globally. Despite many
advances made in cancer therapeutics, adverse side effects and treatment resistance remain a great
problem. In that sense, there are increasing demands to discover new anticancer agents from naturallyderived compounds. Medicinal plants represent a valuable source of new drugs with promising efficacy
and safety. They produce various secondary metabolites, which exhibit unique structures and a
pharmacological spectrum of activity, including antitumour activity. Clinacanthus nutans, Strobilanthes crispus,
Ficus deltoidea, Curcuma longa, Centella asiatica and Piper betle are among the plants species commonly used to
cure cancer in traditional medicine formulae in Malaysia. The present review aims to highlight the
anticancer properties of the listed Malaysian herbs with a focus on their bioactive compounds and the
mode of action. Overall, many studies have disclosed the presence of active metabolites in these plants,
including phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponin, curcumin and Asiatic acid. They possess
significant cytotoxic or antiproliferative effects primarily via the induction of apoptosis, elevation of
antioxidant activity and inhibition of cancer activating enzymes. Hence, further investigation into their
clinical therapeutic potential may be noteworthy. Additionally, this review article also provides the reader
with information concerning the conventional anticancer drugs and their limitations, recent developments
and milestones achieved in plant- derived cancer therapeutics as well as different approaches to enhance
the production of these anticancer molecules. |
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