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Mechanism of Action of Anticancer Herbal Medicines

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Anticancer Plants: Mechanisms and Molecular Interactions

Abstract

Cancer is a main health challenge for the world due to unavailability of standard treatments and severe side effects of chemotherapy. It is the second major cause of casualty worldwide after cardiac disorder. Medicinal plants are used for the treatment of various diseases since ancient time. Due to toxicity of allopathic medicines, peoples are coming back toward the use of natural medicines for the treatment of diseases. Approximately 38% of Americans are using alternative medicine or herbal medicines and spend around $34 billion dollars yearly on it. Constituents isolated from plants showed a crucial role in the development of useful anticancer agent. These include etoposide, vincristine and vinblastine from Catharantus roseus, camptothecin from Camptotheca acuminata, podophyllotoxin from Podophyllum peltatum, etc. The aim of the chapter is to describe various anticancer plants and their possible mechanisms of action in the prevention of cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life and Allied Health Sciences, Glocal University, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mohd Gulfishan

  2. Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Muhammad Afzal

  3. Glocal School of Pharmacy, Glocal University, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Imran Kazmi

  4. Department of Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Aljouf University, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia

    Anwarulabedin Mohsin Quazi

  5. Department of Education, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu, India

    Tariq Ahmad Bhat

  6. Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ajmat Jahan

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  1. Mohd Gulfishan
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  2. Muhammad Afzal
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  3. Imran Kazmi
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  4. Anwarulabedin Mohsin Quazi
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  5. Tariq Ahmad Bhat
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  6. Ajmat Jahan
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Correspondence to Muhammad Afzal or Imran Kazmi .

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  1. Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mohd Sayeed Akhtar

  2. Department of Crop Science,Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mallappa Kumara Swamy

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Gulfishan, M., Afzal, M., Kazmi, I., Quazi, A.M., Bhat, T.A., Jahan, A. (2018). Mechanism of Action of Anticancer Herbal Medicines. In: Akhtar, M., Swamy, M. (eds) Anticancer Plants: Mechanisms and Molecular Interactions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8417-1_14

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