Plant sources of anti-cancer agents

[1][2] In the 1950s, scientists began systematically examining natural organisms as a source of useful anti-cancer substances.

[4] Those plant chemicals that are selectively more toxic to cancer cells than normal cells have been discovered in screening programs and developed as chemotherapy drugs[5] Some plants that indicate potential as an anticancer agent in laboratory-based in vitro research – for example, Typhonium flagelliforme,[citation needed] and Murraya koenigii[6] are currently being studied.

There can be many years between promising laboratory work and the availability of an effective anti-cancer drug: Monroe Eliot Wall discovered anti-cancer properties in Camptotheca in 1958, but it was not until 1996 – after further research and rounds of clinical trials – that topotecan, a synthetic derivative of a chemical in the plant, was approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

[1] Chemicals extracted from clippings of Taxus brevifolia (Pacific yew) have been used as the basis for two chemotherapy drugs, docetaxel and paclitaxel.

[8] Contains ingenol mebutate (Picato) which is used to treat skin cancer[9] Trastuzumab emtansine (Kadcyla) is an antibody conjugated to a synthetic derivative of the cytotoxic principle of the Ethiopian plant Maytenus ovatus.