A Comprehensive Literature Review on the Antineoplastic Activities of Chemical Constituents Isolated from Plants of the Clusiaceae Family
Ubirajara Lanza-Júnior1*, Maitê de Mello e Castro1, Cátia Rezende2, Fábio Morato de Oliveira3 and Shafaq Nisar4
1Department of Pharmacy and Human Medicine-University Center of Votuporanga, São Paulo, Brazil
2Paulista University-Araraquara, São Paulo, Brazil
3Laboratory of Medical Genetics, Federal University of Jataí, Câmpus Jatobá – Cidade Universitária, Brazil
4Department of Chemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Abstract
Cancer is a complex disease that drastically affects the patient’s life in biological, behavioral, and socioeconomic aspects. Despite surgical procedures, cancer treatment involves the use of radiotherapy and drugs that often cause serious adverse effects. The search for new, more effective, and safe compounds is an ongoing event among several research groups, and medicinal plants represent an invaluable source of chemical compounds with different biological effects, including antineoplastic activity. This work aimed to perform an integrative review of the literature to search for the latest findings on the biological activity of different types of extracts and secondary metabolites of two genera of plants belonging to the Clusiaceae family in different experimental studies. The search for articles was carried out in the databases PubMed (NCBI), Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Online Electronic Library (SciELO), Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online – MedLine (PubMed), Scientific Electronic Library – SciELO and Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences – LILACS. Secondary metabolites found in plants belonging to the Clusiaceae family have anticancer effects that are evoked by different biochemical mechanisms, and studies on these metabolites deserve to be expanded, as these substances may represent an invaluable source of natural origin for the development of new drugs to be used in the treatment of cancer.
Keywords: Cancer, Neoplasms, Medicinal plants, Biological activities, antitumor activity
Review article *Corresponding Author, e-mail: ubirajarajunior@fev.edu.br, Tel: +551899678379