Patrikios Ioannis^1,, Stephanou Anastasis¹, Yiallouris Andreas¹

There has been an enormous interest in the literature that phyto-compounds have therapeutic and beneficial effects in various diseases including inflammatory associated arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, parasitic infections, and cancer. The leaves from the tropical tree Annona Muricata, also known as Graviola have been reported to have positive and effective properties against many of the above mentioned diseases. Cancer still remains the number one killer in the Western nations and most treatments for the disease rely on the use of chemotherapy that utilizes drugs that are also toxic against normal healthy cells. Thus, an alternative approach to anti-cancer therapies should involve the determination of novel drug targets that must be highly effective and specific against cancer development and growth. Additionally, the new generation novel drugs should be non-toxic to the host cells and affordable for the patients. This review summarizes the recent findings on the effects of Graviola tree extract as a novel anti-cancer agent for the treatment and prevention of cancers; a possible natural anti-cancer candidate agent in line with all the attributes pointed above.

cell death, apoptosis, necrosis, Graviola, anti-cancer agents, cancer, tumor