In vitro and in vivo Methods for Anticancer Activity Evaluation and Some Indian Medicinal Plants Possessing Anticancer Properties: An Overview

Abstract

Cancer is a major public health burden in both developed and developing countries. Anticancer activity is the effect of natural and synthetic or biological and chemical agents to reverse, suppress or prevent carcinogenic progression. Several synthetic agents are used to cure the disease but they have their toxicity and hence the research is going on to investigate the plant derived chemotherapeutic agents. Therefore an attempt has been made to review different in vitro and in vivo methods for estimating anticancer properties of natural products from medicinal plants. In this review, 50 anticancer medicinal plants of Indian origin belonging to 35 families are reported along with detailed information regarding part used, extract used, type of the model used, types of tested cancer cell lines, etc. These plants continue to be used against various types of tumours such as sarcoma, lymphoma, carcinoma and leukemia. All these plants are potential candidates for in vivo studies since they are showing good in vitro anticancer activity.