Natural products as inducers of apoptosis: Implication for cancer therapy and prevention

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death and a highly organized physiological mechanism to destroy injured or abnormal cells. Apoptotic cells exhibit remarkable morphological features and characteristic molecular expression. Apart from physiological stimuli there are exogenous factors which can contribute to induce apoptosis. The induction of apoptosis in tumour cells is considered very useful in the management and therapy as well as in the prevention of cancer. A wide variety of natural substances have been recognized to have the ability to induce apoptosis in various tumour cells of human origin. These substances are compounds with different chemical entities and many of these are present in plants with medicinal value and in various fruits and vegetables commonly consumed by humans. Mode of action in the apoptotic pathway of some of these compounds has been delineated.