Anticancer potential of Annona genus: A detailed review

Genus Annona is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. From root to shoot, plant parts of different species of Annona were used traditionally in many countries for treatment of different types of diseases and as a general health supplement. It is naturally enriched with a large number of bioactive molecules which attributed to the several biological activities including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer effects. These bioactive constituents isolated from the leaf, bark, fruit and stem of this plant genus have found terpenoids, steroids, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, tannins, phenols and alkaloids. Studies have reported that annonaceous acetogenins and alkaloids from this genus were very effective against different types of tumour cell lines. This review highlights anticancer effects of Annona species in cancer therapy, the efficacy of its bioactive components on diverse cancer types and their mechanism of action and also summarizes the use of these phytochemicals for the purpose of developing a promising anticancer drug candidate in future.