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Plant Source Foods
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
The list of chemicals obtained from plants and used as medicines is extensive. They are often secondary metabolites of plants including different chemical groups such as flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, glycosides, phenolics, and so on. They are used in modern therapy as well as in traditional medicine (304–306). For example, quinine, an anti-malaria alkaloid, is extracted from the cinchona barks. Digoxin and digitoxin, two cardio-tonic glycosides, are isolated from the plants Digitalis lanata and purpurea, respectively. Morphine and codeine, two alkaloids used as strong analgesic and antitussive drugs, respectively, are obtained from the opium poppy latex. Cocaine, an alkaloid used as local anesthetic, is isolated from Erythroxylum coca leaves. Atropine, an alkaloid used as anticholinergic, is obtained from Atropa belladonna leaves. Paclitaxel or TaxolR, a diterpenoid with strong anticancer activity found in recent years, is isolated from Taxus brevifolia and bacata, a Pacific yew. Despite their toxicity, these drugs are still used today because of their high therapeutic efficacy (304). Other compounds often present in our habitual foods such as menthol from mint leaves, theobromine and theophylline from cocoa and tea, beta-glucan from oat and yeast, and so on, also have therapeutic activity. They are both food and medicine.
Heterocyclic Drugs from Plants
Published in Rohit Dutt, Anil K. Sharma, Raj K. Keservani, Vandana Garg, Promising Drug Molecules of Natural Origin, 2020
Debasish Bandyopadhyay, Valeria Garcia, Felipe Gonzalez
Docetaxel better recognizes as Taxotere, is a heterocyclic plant-derived anticancer drug that is frequently used to treat cancers like stomach, lung (NSCLC) breast, brain, prostate, and others (General Cancer Information, 2016). Docetaxel is a semi-synthetic product of taxol (paclitaxel), separated from the bark of Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) giving insight as to its brand name taxotere. Taxol (paclitaxel) is commonly extracted from Taxus brevifolia and is required to treat ovarian, breast, and NSCLC. Paclitaxel can also treat AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma (Paclitaxel, 2018). Both docetaxel and paclitaxel belong to ‘taxanes’ which is a diterpene class having a taxadiene core (Zhao et al., 2012). Taxanes are very efficient anticancer drugs. In contrast, diterpenes belong to a class called ‘terpenoids.’ Docetaxel is a frontline anticancer chemotherapeutic agent in this era (Choi et al., 2015).
The twentieth century
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
Paclitaxel (Taxol), an antineoplastic agent obtained from the bark of the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) was introduced in 1989. The drug is of major benefit for secondary breast cancer and for patients with primary or secondary ovarian cancer (see Chapter 21 ). Docetaxel (Taxotere) is also used in the chemodierapy of breast cancer.
Himalayan poisonous plants for traditional healings and protection from viral attack: a comprehensive review
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2022
Shriya Pathania, Diksha Pathania, Priyanka Chauhan, Mamta Sharma
Edible vaccines are also one of the important topics for plants for the treatment of ailments. Here, the edible vaccine is created by the introduction of desired genes into a selected plant to produce encoded proteins. Edible vaccines are used to cure numerous diseases which include measles, cholera, hepatitis B, C, and E, foot and mouth diseases (Gidding et al., 2000). Plants that are used for the production of edible vaccines are known as "Candidate plants". The most used candidate plants are Tobacco, potato, rice/maize, and tomato. This is a cheaper way to traditional vaccines. Salicylic acid, an active ingredient of aspirin is found in several plants which include Salix. Taxus brevifolia, contains toxic ingredients which can be used at the cellular level to inhibit the growth of cancers. Small doses of Opium, mandrake, henbane, hemlock is used to relieve the pain of surgery (Takouri 2010). Figure S3 shows the toxicological effects of plant toxins.
Insights into apoptotic proteins in chemotherapy: quantification techniques and informing therapy choice
Published in Expert Review of Proteomics, 2018
Medicinal plants and their chemical constituents are an important part of biomedical innovation providing a rich source for highly effective drugs against cancer. The tremendous (and maybe unexpected) relevance of natural products for cancer therapy became recently apparent by surveys of the National Cancer Institute (NCI, USA), in which all FDA-approved anticancer drugs were categorized according to their origin. Only 25% of all drugs were of pure synthetic origin. Hence, 75% of all clinically established anticancer drugs have a clear connection to natural products, either as isolated compounds from natural sources, derivatives of natural products, therapeutic proteins/antibodies, plant preparations or natural product mimetics, which mimic modes of action of natural products [84]. One of the most important drug discoveries is the highly effective anticancer drug paclitaxel, which is naturally derived from Taxus brevifolia [85]. Another recent showcase example is artemisinin from the medicinal herb Artemisia annua. The Chinese scientist Youyou Tu has been awarded with the Nobel Prize in 2015 for her life-time achievement in artemisinin research as antimalarial drug [86]. During the past years, it turned out that artemisinin and its derivatives are also active against cancer and first clinical results confirm the wealth of preclinical in vitro and in vivo data [87]. Induction of apoptosis is one the most important marker of cytotoxic antitumor agents.
Phytochemical screening, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antiangiogenic activities of Lophira procera A. Chev. (Ochnaceae) medicinal plant from Gabon
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2018
Rick-Leonid Ngoua-Meye-Misso, Cédric Sima-Obiang, Jean De La Croix Ndong, Joseph Privat Ondo, Felix Ovono Abessolo, Louis-Clément Obame-Engonga
Angiogenesis is a process of formation of new vessels from arterial vascularization created by endothelial cells. It is essential for the continuous growth of the tumor because it supplies the tumor with nutrients and oxygen, and eliminates cellular waste, which can be toxic to cancer cells [8]. Inflammatory cells and soluble factors are present in all tumors. Signs of “burning” inflammation that include tissue remodeling, angiogenesis and other wound healing characteristics are usually used by pathologists as morphological indices of invasive cancer. Recent evidence demonstrates that these stromal processes play a fundamental role in the development and progression of cancer and, at least in some cases, can predict the clinical behavior of cancer better than the characteristics of neoplastic cells themselves [9]. There are biomolecules present in plants that can neutralize ROS [10,11] , prevent inflammation and inhibit tumor angiogenesis [11,12] to finally kill the tumor cells. Also, the plants have been at the origin of many active molecules having shown their effectiveness in the treatment of different cancers, such as breast, ovary and lung treat taxol (paclitaxel) which comes from the bark of Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia).