PLANT DERIVED ANTICANCER AGENTS: A GREEN APPROACH TO CANCER PROGRESSION

Plants have been used as medicinal agents since the origins of humanity and are still used in developing countries as a treatment and prevention of cancer, which is yet a leading cause of death in modern society. Nowadays, conventional cures of this disease, such as chemotherapy, can cause damage to patients' healthy cells and tissues. Researchers are focusing on using alternative green approaches that are more eco-friendly than current cancer therapies. Phytochemicals are biologically active compounds that perform various pharmacological functions and can be found in different parts of plants, including flowers, pericarps, fruits, seeds, roots, rhizomes, stems, leaves and barks. Tens of thousands of phytochemicals have been identified so far, still an exact classification of phytochemicals has not yet been performed due to their large variety. The extracts from plant sources are able to inhibit the growth and initiate apoptosis of tumor cells. Furthermore they offer several advantages in terms of environmental availability, lower cost and fewer toxic side effects. This thesis aims to study the potential anticancer activity of plant origin compounds through a green approach. The plants selected for this work are Catalpa bignonioides and a rare variety of Phaseolus vulgaris. The plant extracts were analyzed for their chemical composition and their anticancer activity was evaluated in vitro using colorectal cancer cell models.