Abstract

Globally cancer is a disease which severely effects the human population. There is a constant demand for new therapies to treat and prevent this life-threatening disease. Scientific and research interest is drawing its attention towards naturally-derived compounds as they are considered to have less toxic side effects compared to current treatments such as chemotherapy. The Plant Kingdom produces naturally occurring secondary metabolites which are being investigated for their anticancer activities leading to the development of new clinical drugs. Many plant products exist that have shown very promising anti-cancer properties in vitro, but yet to be evaluated in humans. As commercialization of the herbal medicine has happened, assurance of safety, quality and efficacy of medicinal plants and herbal products has become an important issue. The herbal raw material is liable to a lot of dissimilarities due to several factors, the essential ones being the identity of the plants and seasonal variation (which has a bearing on the time of collection), the ecotypic, genotypic and chemotypic variations, drying and storage conditions and the presence of xenobiotic. Further studies are required to determine the efficacy of these plant products in treating cancers in humans. Worldwide effects are ongoing to identify new anticancer compounds from plants. In recent years owing to the fear of side effects people prefer more and more use of natural plant products for cancer. For these reasons, World Health Organization (WHO) supports the use of traditional medicines which are efficacious and non-toxic. This review has tried to summarize few herbal plants having anticancer activity.