Are polyphenol antioxidants at the root of medicinal plant anti-cancer success?

ConclusionsFrom the literature reviewed, most plant products with consistently reported anti-cancer efficacy contains high levels of polyphenols or other potent antioxidants and their mechanisms of action correlate to that reported for isolated antioxidants in the context of cancer. This suggests that natural products may indeed become the panacea against this chronic disease – either as therapeutic medicine strategy or to serve as templates for the design of novel synthetic drugs. The recommendation is made that antioxidant activity of plant actives and especially polyphenols, should be the focus of anti-cancer drug discovery initiatives. Lastly, researchers are advised to exploit current techniques of chemical compound characterization when investigating polyphenol-rich plants to enable the easy consolidation of research findings from different laboratories.Graphical abstract
Source: Journal of Ethnopharmacology - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research