Nature is considered as an enormous contributor in anticancer drugs. Although more than half century had passed on its discovery, taxol is still, till now, a unique anticancer agent. Other compounds as vincristine, vinblastine, camptothecins, etoposide and others are plant derived and effective against cancer.A fact that out of 121 drugs prescribed for cancer treatment till date, 90 are derived from plant sources [1].

Fighting Cancer by Phytochemicals

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L. Dunal) is an important and traditional medicinal herb found in India. It has been reported that, Ashwagandha has potential anti-proliferative as well as chemo-accelerative activity. The goal of this study was to investigate the most probable reason behind Ashwagandha’s anti-proliferative and chemo-accelerative activity. In addition, chromatographically isolate and chemically characterize some new compound which have antineoplastic property and find the mode of action of it. In vitro assays (MTT and Western blot) for anti-tumorigenic potentiality of the isolated drug were carried out on HT-29, KB and HeLa cell lines. In this experimental study, purification and chemical characterization (by UV, FT-IR, HPLC, LC-MS, 1H-NMR) of an anti-cancer drug has been found as Paclitaxel. MTT-assay shows an average IC50 value of the isolated Paclitaxel is 10 nM. Western blot data reveals there may be ROS-associated p53-MDM2-related cell proliferation and apoptosis by the drug’s in vitro effect.

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Rajesh Juneja

Papers

Antineoplastic property of Ashwagandha for Paclitaxel concomitant, can induce p53-mediated apoptosis: In vitro search for anti-proliferative phytogent