The potential of natural products to be anticancer agents

Abstract

Background and Purpose Natural products have been a valuable source not only for foods but also for medicines. Cancer is one of the chronic, non-curable and fatal disease. Studies have shown that natural products have a great potential in treating several medical conditions including cancer. Experimental Approach The main methods used to carry out this study were cell culture, Trypan blue exclusion assay, MTT cytotoxicity assay and Lowry assay. These methods used to investigate the effect of curcumin and resveratrol on A549 cell line growth and survival. Key Results Both curcumin and resveratrol indicated interesting results, leading to a decline in total number of viable cells in addition to protein content of A549 cell line. Conclusion and Implications Curcumin, resveratrol and other natural products should be examined thoroughly owing to their availability and promising future that they have shown, which may end with the discovery of novel agents that can tackle the global problem of cancer.