A Comprehensive Review on Anticancer and Antitumor Potentials of Indigenous Plants Found in North East India

Cancer is a malign disease that accounts for about 9.6 million deaths around the world and is the second largest leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease. Chemotherapeutic drugs administered to treat cancer show great potency but falter, causing many severe side effects. Hence, the paradigm of cancer drug research has shifted towards plant and plant-derived natural compounds as they are reported to deliver maximal effectiveness with lesser side effects. Indigenous plants and their derivatives have been an integral part of ethnomedicine in India. The traditional knowledge of utilizing medicinal plants has been used to treat numerous metabolic disorders and diseases since immemorial. Indigenous plants have also been shown to possess high potency in the treatment of cancer as well. The natural landscape of northeast India has some of the most diverse and unique plant species, which have been traditionally used in ethnomedicine and have been studied for their anticancer and antitumor potentials. The aim of the present review is to highlight some of the natural and indigenous plant species of Northeast India that have been reported to have anticancer and anti-tumor effects identified either in-vivo or in-vitro.

Keywords: Anticancer drugs, Cancer, Ethnomedicine, Indigenous, Northeast India, Traditional.