Chapter 12

Traditional Medicine: Recognize Potential Cancer Treatments of Herbal Origin

Pooja Thakur, Chirag Chopra and Reena Singh*

Abstract

Globally, cancer has become a second major cause of human mortality rate, which significantly affects the human population. Therefore a constant demand is kept for new therapies to treat and cure this severe disease. Due to less toxic side effects in comparison to existing treatment such as chemotherapy, herbal medicine has been drawn consideration in many disease cure and treatment. Now with due attention, traditional medicine from herbal plants are admired for cancer treatment as of their potent anticancer effects. Plant secondary metabolites such as polyphenols, flavonoids, among others, have potent anti-cancer properties and have been explored for cancer treatment for centuries. Many studies have revealed that these secondary metabolites possess effective anticancer activities by exhibiting several different mechanisms such as; antioxidant activity, apoptosis induction, target specificity, prevention to DNA damage, cell cycle regression, angiogenesis prevention. Therefore, herbal plants and their naturally derived compounds become potential drugs for cancer cure and treatment.

Total Pages: 252-267 (16)

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