Roles of Plant Extracts and Constituents in Cervical Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a major health problem worldwide and is the most frequent cause of cancer in womenin India. Early detection and affordable drugs with clinical efficacy have to go hand-in-hand in order tocomprehensibly address this serious health challenge. Plant-based drugs with potent anticancer effects shouldadd to the efforts to find a cheap drug with limited clinical side effects. Keeping this very purpose in mind, anattempt has been made in this review to explore the potential of plant extracts or constituents known to exhibitantitumorigenic activity or exert cytotoxic effect in human cervical carcinoma cells. Alkaloids such as thoseisolated from C. vincetoxicum and T. Tanakae, naucleaorals A and B, isolated from the roots of N. orientalis,(6aR)-normecambroline, isolated from the bark of N. dealbata appear promising in different human cervicalcarcinoma cells with the IC50 of 4.0-8 μg/mL. However, other compounds such as rhinacanthone and neolignansisolated from different plants are not far behind and kill cervical cancer cells at a very low concentrations.Among plant extracts or its constituents that enhance the effect of known anticancer drugs, noni, derived fromthe plant M. citrifolia perhaps is the best candidate. The cytotoxic potency and apoptotic index of cisplatin wasfound to significantly enhanced in combination with noni in different human cervical carcinoma cells and ittherefore holds significance as promising herbal-based anticancer agent. However, efficacy needs to be furtherinvestigated in various cervical cell lines and more importantly, in in vivo cervical cancer models for possibleuse as an alternative and safe anticancer drug

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