Anticancer plants: Properties and Application

Cancer is one of the leading death cause of human population increasingly seen in recent times. Plants have been used for medicinal purposes since immemorial times. Though, several synthetic medicines are useful in treating cancer, they are inefficient and unsafe. However, plants have proved to be useful in cancer cure. Moreover, natural compounds from plants and their derivatives are safe and effective in treatment and management of several cancer types.

The anticancer plants such as Catharanthus roseus, Podophyllum peltatum, Taxus brevifolia, Camptotheca acuminate, Andrographis paniculata, Crateva nurvala, Croton tonkinensis, Oplopanax horridus etc., are important source of chemotherapeutic compounds. These plants have proven their significance in the treatment of cancer and various other infectious diseases. Nowadays, several well-known anticancer compounds such as taxol, podophyllotoxins, camptothecin, vinblastine, vincristine, homoharringtonine etc. have been isolated and purified from these medicinal plants. Many of them are used effectively to combat cancer and other related diseases. The herbal medicine and their products are the most suitable and safe to be used as an alternative medicine. Based on their traditional uses and experimental evidences, the anticancer products or compounds are isolated or extracted from the medicinally important plants. Many of these anticancer plants have become endangered due to ruthless harvesting in nature. Hence, there is a need to conserve these species and to propagate them in large scale using plant tissue culture. Alternatively, plant cell tissue and organ culture biotechnology can be adopted to produce these anticancer compounds without cultivation. The proper knowledge and exploration of these isolated molecules or products could provide an alternative source to reduce cancer risk, anti-tumorigenic properties, and suppression of carcinogen activities.

Anticancer plants: Volume 1, Properties and Application is a very timely effort in this direction. Discussing the various types of anticancer plants as a source of curative agent, their pharmacological and neutraceutical properties, cryo-preservations and recent trends to understand the basic cause and consequences involved in the diseases diagnosis.

We acknowledge the publisher, Springer for their continuous inspiration and valuable suggestions to improvise the content of this book. We further extend our heartfelt gratitude to all our book contributors for their support, and assistance to complete this assignment. I am sure that these books will benefit the scientific communities including academics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and medical practitioners.

• Anticancer plants
• Transcriptomics
• Genomics
• Proteomics
• Plant cell culture

• Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, India

  Mohd Sayeed Akhtar

• Department of Crop Science Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

  Mallappa Kumara Swamy

Dr. Mohd. Sayeed Akhtar, is working as a Assistant Professor in Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, U.P., India. He has received his PhD degree from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India in 2008. He has conducted his postdoctoral research at the Botanical Institute, University of Basel (BIB), Switzerland (2008-2010) and Chonbuk National University (CBNU), Republic of Korea in 2011, respectively, and also works Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Natural Sciences, Jimma university, Jimma, Ethiopia form 2011-2014, and Fellow Researcher UDQ9 at the Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia (2014-2015). Dr. Akhtar has 14 years of research and 8 years teaching experience in Soil Microbiology, Applied Microbiology, Environmental Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Plant Pathology and Plant Nano-biotechnology. Dr. Akhtar has received several prestigious fellowships at National and International levels till date. His promising approach and dedication stands him in the row of foremost scientist in the field of Plant-Microbe Interaction and Plant Nano-biotechnology. He is author and co-author of more than hundred articles in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters in the books published by Springer-Verlag and also edited 5 books with international publishers. He is serving the scientific community as editorial board member and reviewer of several high impact international Journals. His current research is focused on the rhizospheric plant-microbe interactions and their molecular biotechnology, bioremediation, biomineralization, nanofertilizers and Nanobiotechnology.

Dr. Mallappa Kumara Swamy, is presently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Dr. Swamy has obtained his PhD (Biotechnology) from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India in 2013. He has more than 14 years of teaching and research experience in the fields of plant biotechnology, secondary metabolites production, phytochemistry and bioactive studies. To his credit, Dr. Swamy has published more than 50 research publications in peer- reviewed journals. Dr. Swamy is also the editorial board member and reviewer of several high impact international journals. Dr. Swamy is presently engaged in cell and tissue culture technology for bioactive compounds production and their bioactivities studies. Also, his research focuses on nanotechnology for medical applications.

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