Prevention of Cancer by Naturally Occurring Bioactive Compounds: Conventional Wisdom or Reality?

Conventional wisdom suggests that consumption of plant-based foods including, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, cereals, nuts, marine foods (rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids) are key factors in maintaining healthy lifestyles and helping to combat the risk of chronic disease. Consequently there has been increased interest in research, development and commercialization of functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals and dietary supplements. In this context, natural products have received close attention for prevention of chronic diseases such as, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Carcinogenesis, being a multistage process, can be regulated or controlled progress by only those bioactive compounds which can act through multiple pathways. Our research group has been involved in the purification and characterization of the naturally occurring compounds to understand their potential benefits in cancer prevention. We have successfully purified and identified triterpenoids, phenolics, carotenoids and phytosterols from citrus and 'BetaSweet' carrot. Certain purified bioactive compounds were examined for their capacity to inhibit colon (SW-480 and HT-29) and breast cancer (MCF-7) using cell culture models. Citrus extracts obacunone, obacunone glucoside, beta-sitosterol and 2-hydroxy-1, 2, 3-propanetricarboxylic acid 2-methyl ester (HPCME) were subjected for colon cancer cells proliferation inhibition. Different polarity extracts of 'BetaSweet' carrot were tested for breast cancer inhibition. These bioactive compounds and extracts have shown inhibition of cancer cell proliferation through activation of the apoptosis process as studied using cultured cells.