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Review
. 2019 Apr 17;55(4):110.
doi: 10.3390/medicina55040110.

Synergistic Effects of Plant Derivatives and Conventional Chemotherapeutic Agents: An Update on the Cancer Perspective

Raffaele Pezzani  1   2 , Bahare Salehi  3 , Sara Vitalini  4 , Marcello Iriti  5 , Felipe Andrés Zuñiga  6 , Javad Sharifi-Rad  7 , Miquel Martorell  8 , Natália Martins  9   10
Affiliations
Review

Synergistic Effects of Plant Derivatives and Conventional Chemotherapeutic Agents: An Update on the Cancer Perspective

Raffaele Pezzani et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Synergy is a process in which some substances cooperate to reach a combined effect that is greater than the sum of their separate effects. It can be considered a natural "straight" strategy which has evolved by nature to obtain more efficacy at low cost. In this regard, synergistic effects may be observed in the interaction between herbal products and conventional drugs or biochemical compounds. It is important to identify and exploit these interactions since any improvement brought by such kind of process can be advantageously used to treat human disorders. Even in a complex disease such as cancer, positive synergistic plant-drug interactions should be investigated to achieve the best outcomes, including providing a greater benefit to patients or avoiding adverse side effects. This review analyzes and summarizes the current knowledge on the synergistic effects of plant-drug interactions with a focus on anticancer strategies.

Keywords: anticancer; conventional chemotherapeutic agents; plant derivatives; plant-drug interaction; synergistic effects; synergy.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representation of the isobole method.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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