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Natural Cancer Chemopreventive Reagents from Food and Herbals

  • Cancer Chemoprevention Research in China (S Yu, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Pharmacology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Although great progress continues to be made against cancer, it remains the second leading cause of death in the world. As pointed out in the World Cancer Report 2014, elucidating the causes and devising effective prevention strategies are essential components of cancer control. Hence, in this review, we focus on effective and safe cancer chemopreventive reagents, which could reverse the processes of initiation and subsequent progression of cancer.

Recent Findings

Natural products from traditional herbals and food, consumed with years of history, have attracted much attention because of their safety, efficacy, and potency for cancer chemoprevention. Based on 119 references, we collected 179 chemopreventive phytochemicals, including flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, and stilbenes. In our recent research, we have also reported a series of novel chemopreventive reagents from Traditional Chinese Medicines and functional food.

Summary

This review has summarized the latest research on the bioactive natural products reported as chemopreventive reagents in vitro or in vivo. The research results could throw light on further study for accurate prevention strategies against cancer. Furthermore, the functional factors from the food suggested more healthful dietary pattern for the special group.

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Acknowledgements

The work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81473108, U1403102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Traditional Chinese Materia Media, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Di Zhou, Gang Chen & Ning Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Ministry of Education, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Di Zhou, Gang Chen, Jian Wang & Ning Li

  3. School of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, 110016, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Wang

  4. School of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica 49#, Key Laboratory of Structure-Based Drug Design and Discovery, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Ministry of Education, Wenhua Road 103, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Ning Li

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  1. Di Zhou
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  2. Gang Chen
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Correspondence to Ning Li.

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Di Zhou, Gang Chen, Jian Wang, and Ning Li declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cancer Chemoprevention Research in China

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Zhou, D., Chen, G., Wang, J. et al. Natural Cancer Chemopreventive Reagents from Food and Herbals. Curr Pharmacol Rep 3, 138–149 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40495-017-0089-y

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