India is the largest producer of medicinal plants and is rightly called the "Botanical garden of the World. The medicinal plants, besides having natural therapeutic values against various diseases, also provide high quality of food and raw materials for livelihood As we know that, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Conventional cancer therapies cause serious side effects and at best, merely extend the patient's lifespan by a few years. Cancer control may therefore benefit from the potential that resides in alternative therapies.
The demand to utilize alternative concepts or approaches to the treatment of cancer is therefore escalating. However, the potential treatment of cancer is still under investigation.Considerable works have been done on these plants to treat cancer, and some plant products have been marketed as anticancer drugs, based on the traditional uses and scientific reports.
The medicinal plants and their products, particularly vegetables have antioxidant activity leading to anti~ cancer etTectJ‘he vegetables contain many phytochemicals having antioxidant activity. The antioxidant protects the cells from damaged caused by free oxygen radicals.Further discoveries lead to isolate anticancer compounds from plants like Catharanthus rose-us, Camptotheca acuminate and Taxus brevifoliaetc.
These are the plants which are found to be effective against various types of cancers. This present article deals with the selective medicinal plants, fruits and vegetables having anticancer properties which could be further designed to produce cancer curing drugs.
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