Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May 9;27(9):3036.
doi: 10.3390/molecules27093036.

A Review on Mechanistic Insight of Plant Derived Anticancer Bioactive Phytocompounds and Their Structure Activity Relationship

Kishor Mazumder  1   2 , Asma Aktar  1 , Priyanka Roy  1 , Biswajit Biswas  1 , Md Emran Hossain  1 , Kishore Kumar Sarkar  1 , Sitesh Chandra Bachar  3 , Firoj Ahmed  3 , A S M Monjur-Al-Hossain  4 , Koichi Fukase  5
Affiliations
Review

A Review on Mechanistic Insight of Plant Derived Anticancer Bioactive Phytocompounds and Their Structure Activity Relationship

Kishor Mazumder et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Cancer is a disorder that rigorously affects the human population worldwide. There is a steady demand for new remedies to both treat and prevent this life-threatening sickness due to toxicities, drug resistance and therapeutic failures in current conventional therapies. Researchers around the world are drawing their attention towards compounds of natural origin. For decades, human beings have been using the flora of the world as a source of cancer chemotherapeutic agents. Currently, clinically approved anticancer compounds are vincristine, vinblastine, taxanes, and podophyllotoxin, all of which come from natural sources. With the triumph of these compounds that have been developed into staple drug products for most cancer therapies, new technologies are now appearing to search for novel biomolecules with anticancer activities. Ellipticine, camptothecin, combretastatin, curcumin, homoharringtonine and others are plant derived bioactive phytocompounds with potential anticancer properties. Researchers have improved the field further through the use of advanced analytical chemistry and computational tools of analysis. The investigation of new strategies for administration such as nanotechnology may enable the development of the phytocompounds as drug products. These technologies have enhanced the anticancer potential of plant-derived drugs with the aim of site-directed drug delivery, enhanced bioavailability, and reduced toxicity. This review discusses mechanistic insights into anticancer compounds of natural origins and their structural activity relationships that make them targets for anticancer treatments.

Keywords: anticancer bioactive phytocompounds; cytotoxic agents; neoplastic disease; proliferation; structure activity relationship (SAR).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of the SAR and analogs of VAs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
General mechanistic insight of anticancer drugs derived from plants. M, G1, G2, and S represent distinct phases of a cell cycle characteristic to specified functions or intervals; where M phase: mitosis cell division; S phase: DNA synthesis; G1 (gap 1) phase: gap between completion of M phase and initiation of S phase; and G2 (gap 2) phase: gap between completion of S phase and initiation of M phase.
Figure 3
Figure 3
SAR and analogs of taxanes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Analogs of camptothecin.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Combretastatins with anticancer activity.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Podophyllotoxin.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Geniposide.
Figure 8
Figure 8
SAR of colchicine; ↑ and ↓ indicate increase and decrease respectively.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Artesunates with anticancer activity.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Homoharringtonine.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Salvicine.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Ellipticine and its analogs.
Figure 13
Figure 13
R-roscovitine.
Figure 14
Figure 14
SAR of maytansine.
Figure 15
Figure 15
SAR of thapsigargin.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Bruceantin and brusatol.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Carcuminoid analogs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Prance G.T. Floristic inventory of the tropics: Where do we stand? Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 1977;64:659–684. doi: 10.2307/2395293. - DOI
    1. Balandrin M.F., Klocke J.A., Wurtele E.S., Bollinger W.H. Natural Plant Chemicals: Sources of Industrial and Medicinal Materials. Science. 1985;228:1154–1160. doi: 10.1126/science.3890182. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ochwang’I D.O., Kimwele C.N., Oduma J.A., Gathumbi P.K., Mbaria J.M., Kiama S.G. Medicinal plants used in treatment and management of cancer in Kakamega County, Kenya. J. Ethnopharmacol. 2014;151:1040–1055. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2013.11.051. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mazumder K., Biswas B., Raja I.M., Fukase K. A Review of Cytotoxic Plants of the Indian Subcontinent and a Broad-Spectrum Analysis of Their Bioactive Compounds. Molecules. 2020;25:1904. doi: 10.3390/molecules25081904. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mukherjee B. Nanotherapeutics-for-the-Treatment-of-Hepatocellular-Carcinoma. Nanother. Treat. Hepatocell. Carcinoma. 2022;29:219–247.

MeSH terms