Targeting Cancer Metabolism and Cell Cycle by Plant-Derived Compounds

Cancer has an increasing death rate over the world population without discriminating between the industrial and developing countries. Complexity of cancer such as ability of cancer cells to develop resistance to drugs or differential behavior of sub-types and different responses from the patients indicate the continuous need for research and development of new anticancer drugs, new formulations of drug combinations and treatment strategies. Not too surprisingly nature itself, is often the largest territorial reservoir as a source for this type of research and development. Speaking of plant variety, more than 1000 plants have already been identified to produce agents with anticancer activities. In this review, a panel of plant derived anti-cancer agents will be reiterated in terms of their mechanism of action in treatment of disease.