Abstract:
In the pharmaceutical industry, the expected
surge in production of new therapeutic entities
promised by technological advances, such as
high-throughput screening, synthetic libraries and
advances in molecular biology and genomics, has
not materialized. The unique structural diversity of
natural products continues to provide opportunities to
discover novel compounds. Secondary metabolites,
active components of natural products such as marine
organisms, microbial organisms and terrestrial plants,
are particularly exciting untapped resources for
exploration as medicines. Sri Lanka is home to around
3700 plant species, half of which are considered as
medicinal plants. Seventy per cent of the Sri Lankan
population relies on this plant-based traditional
medicine system for treating various illnesses such
as tumors. As such these medicinal plant sources
should be used to conquer terminal diseases and
for prevention of diseases. Sri Lankan researchers
have found several plant species that possess
cytotoxic activity. This review summarizes the current
information regarding the Sri Lankan plant materials
that possess anticancer properties.
