Abstract

Natural products are well recognized as sources for drugs in several human ailments including cancers. Examples of natural pharmaceuticals from plants include vincristine, irinotecan, etoposide and paclitaxel. Despite the discovery of many drugs of natural origin, the search for new anticancer agents is still necessary, in order to increase the range available and to find less toxic and more effective drugs. It has been recommended that samples with pharmacological usage should be taken into account when selecting plants to treat cancer, as several ailments reflect disease states bearing relevance to cancer or cancer-like symptoms. Therefore, we designed the present work to investigate the cytotoxicity of six natural compounds available in our research group, with previously demonstrated pharmacological activities.

Keywords: Staphylococcus; Naphthoquinone; Anthraquinones; Tumour promotion; Cell cycle; Carcinoma cells