几个世纪以来,传统医学在医疗保健中发挥了重要作用。许多疾病的治疗,包括癌症,从使用传统药物中提取的草药中受益匪浅。生物活性化合物,比如姜黄素,水飞蓟宾,小檗碱,人参,传统医学中存在的其他药物显示出广泛的特性,如抗炎,抗菌,在实验室研究和动物实验(体外和体内)中都具有抗氧化和有效的抗癌特性。在这次审查中,我们主要强调了传统医学中存在的生物活性化合物的抗癌作用,比如姜黄素,Cardamonin,胡椒碱,小檗碱,人参,水飞蓟宾,表没食子儿茶素没食子酸酯,和asafoetida。我们还讨论了这些化合物在化学预防和抗癌作用中的分子证据。这些化合物有可能干扰癌症的生长,扩散,转移,和血管生成,并通过靶向不同的途径和细胞周期诱导细胞凋亡。本文还重点介绍了这些化合物如何帮助克服耐药性并提高其他临床批准药物的可用性。这些化合物与其他治疗形式的协同使用也对新的和即将进行的研究具有极大的吸引力。最后,我们已经讨论了这些化合物的生物利用度和改善它们的策略,以便充分发挥它们的潜力。
For many centuries, traditional medicine has played an essential role in health care. The treatment of many illnesses, including cancer, has greatly benefited from using herbal remedies derived from traditional medicine. The bioactive compounds, such as curcumin, silibinin, berberine, ginseng, and others present in traditional medicine have shown a wide range of properties, such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-oxidant as well as potent anti-cancer properties both in laboratory studies and animal experiments (in vitro and in vivo). In this review, we mainly emphasized the anticancer role of bioactive compounds present in traditional medicine, such as curcumin, cardamonin, piperine, berberine, ginseng, silibinin, epigallocatechin gallate, and asafoetida. We also discussed molecular evidence of these compounds in chemoprevention and anticancer effects. These compounds have the potential to interfere with cancer growth, proliferation, metastasis, and angiogenesis and induce apoptosis by targeting different pathways and the cell cycle. This review article also focuses on how these compounds can help overcome drug resistance and enhance the availability of other clinically approved drugs. The usage of these compounds synergistically with other forms of treatment is also of great fascination to new and upcoming research. Finally, we have discussed the bioavailability of these compounds and strategies employed to improve them so their full potential can be exploited.