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Remedy of Targeting Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells with Botanicals

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Anticancer Plants: Natural Products and Biotechnological Implements

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Abstract

The cancer disease burden is increasing regularly due to various factors like mutation occurrence in genes, environmental changes, adopting a modern lifestyle, less physical exercises, and modern food habits. To cure this disease, chemotherapy is the major option including surgery for solid tumors followed by radiation therapy. Chemotherapy is associated with lots of side effects with synthetic compounds, whereas natural source of plant extracts and products is reliable and has less side effects of treatment. In line with this, plant extracts with active ingredients having anticancer potential are becoming popular for cancer therapy. These plant extracts are associated with more than one active compound. But, extraction procedures to convert them into final drug products are associated with different hurdles. However, recent research advocates that the real culprit of the disease is cancer stem cells present in tumor. There is a need to target cancer stem cells to bring novel strategies for the therapy. The present chapter summarizes the anticancer activities of plant active components targeting cancer as well as cancer stem cells for therapeutics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stem Cell Research Division, Department of Biochemistry, National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Rajanna Ajumeera, Ganapathi Thipparapu & Suresh Challa

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  1. Rajanna Ajumeera
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  2. Ganapathi Thipparapu
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  3. Suresh Challa
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Correspondence to Rajanna Ajumeera .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Gandhi Faiz-e-Aam College, Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Mohd Sayeed Akhtar

  2. Department of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mallappa Kumara Swamy

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Ajumeera, R., Thipparapu, G., Challa, S. (2018). Remedy of Targeting Cancer and Cancer Stem Cells with Botanicals. In: Akhtar, M., Swamy, M. (eds) Anticancer Plants: Natural Products and Biotechnological Implements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8064-7_13

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