Role of Natural Products in Developing Novel Anticancer Agents: A Perspective.

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease and is one of the significant health issues, especially in public health systems around the world. Natural products and their structural derivatives with outstanding chemical diversity have been investigated for potential anti-cancer agents. Many natural products revealing potential anti-cancer properties such as cytotoxicity, proliferation inhibition, induced apoptosis, retard metastasis, suppressing angiogenesis, and improved chemotherapy have been isolated from various plants and herbs. Several promising lead molecules have been identified recently; a few are in the clinical trial stage. This short communication summarises the role of natural products and their analogs in anti-cancer drug developments, especially plant, marine and microbial-based anti-cancer agents.