Abstract

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL REVIEW OF TRADITIONAL HERBAL PLANTS FOR ANTICANCER ACTIVITY

*Gurdeep Kaur, Amit Kapoor and Gurramanjot Kaur

ABSTRACT

Medicinal herbs have been on the forefront whenever we talk about anticancer remedies, Herbal medicines have a vital role in the prevention and treatment of cancer. With advanced knowledge of molecular science and refinement in isolation and structure elucidation techniques, various anticancer herbs has been identified, which execute their therapeutic effect by inhibiting cancer-activating enzymes and hormones, stimulating DNA repair mechanism, promoting production of protective enzymes, inducing antioxidant action and enhancing immunity of the body. Here we covered the plants used previously and recently identified for treatment of cancer and to reduce the pains during the treatment of cancer. Cancer is a disease that begins in the cells of the body. Side effects of allopathic drugs and development of resistance to currently used drugs for infectious diseases have led to increased emphasis on the use of plant materials as a source of medicines for a wide variety of human ailments. In the cancer drug discovery program, a paradigm based on ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological data would be more economic and beneficial for identifying potential anti-cancer molecules than mass screening of plants species. With the advent of combinatorial chemistry and high throughput screening, however, even greater progress may be expected with natural product leads. A number of promising new agents are in clinical development based on selective activity against career related molecular targets. This paper deals with some important medicinal plants used as an anti-cancer activity.

Keywords: Cancer, Cancer types, Causes, anticancer agents, Medicinal herbs, Herbal medicines, Cancer treatment.