Abstract:
Cancer is one of the major causes of death and the number of new cases, as well as the
number of individuals living with cancer, is expanding continuously. Worldwide the alarming
rise in mortality rate due to cancer has fuelled the pursuit for effective anticancer agents to
combat this disease. Finding novel and efficient compounds of natural origin has been a
major point of concern for research in the pharmaceutical sciences. Natural products have
been seen to possess the potential to be excellent lead structures and to serve as a basis of
promising therapeutic agents for cancer treatment. Many successful anti-cancer drugs
currently in use are natural products or their analogues and many more are under clinical
trials. This review aims to highlight the invaluable role that natural products have played, and
continue to play, in the discovery of anticancer agents and also summarizes the recently
launched natural product-derived anticancer drugs and new natural product templates in
clinical pipeline.
