Abstract

COUMARIN: AN EMERGING ANTICANCER AGENT

G. Sathya Pooja* and P. Buvaneswari

ABSTRACT

Cancer is one of the life threatening diseases which affects almost 6o human organs. It is a highly heterogenous and complex disease caused by some etiological agents many of which are unknown. Despite the availability of many anticancer drugs, they are less effective due to the emerging cancers and are less effective against their target. Identifying novel anticancer drug is therefore of critical importance and many of the synthetic and the natural products are effective. Coumarin is one such potential drug candidate owing to its properties of stability, solubility, and low toxicity. There are numerous evidences showing its inhibitory role against infection of various cancers such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and cervical cancer. This review summarizes the present state of understanding with a focus on coumarin’s anticancer effect and their possible molecular mechanisms against breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer and lung cancer.

Keywords: Coumarin, Cancer, etiological agents, infection, molecular mechanism.