Cytotoxic activity and mechanism of action of metabolites from the Goniothalamus genus

• DOI: 10.1007/s11101-014-9372-2
• Publication Date: 2014-07-07T05:17:53Z
• Authors: Chee-Yan Choo; Norkamilah Abdullah; Marc Diederich
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 3. Good health; 0104 chemical sciences

The World Health Organization estimates that 4 billion people or 80 % of the population use plants for curative purposes or for their natural health benefits. Accordingly, biodiversity is an important source of active natural products especially used in traditional medicine as healers transmitted knowledge of traditional usage of medicinal plants from generation to generation whereas pharmacologically active compounds within remained obscure. The present review documents cytotoxicity and anti-cancer potential of known compounds of the Goniothalamus species from the Annonaceae family existing in tropical and subtropical Asia and being intensively used for medicinal purposes.