Anticancer therapeutic potential of silibinin: current trends, scope and relevance

Abstract

The use of natural plants as powerful sources for the treatment of chronic illnesses has drawn more attention from researchers to herbal remedies. Silybum marianum, a naturally occurring plant, is the source of silymarin, a flavonolignan which is used to guard against a range of illnesses in both clinical and experimental contexts. Silymarin is easily absorbed and metabolised in phases I and II, according to its pharmacokinetics. Phase II is the site of its conjugation, and it is finally excreted in bile and urine. In a variety of tissues, the primary active components, silymarin and silibinin, provide protection against cancer. Silibinin has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenic, antioxidant, and anti-metastatic properties. This further helps to block many oncogenic pathways from being activated such as NF-κB, Wnt/β-catenin, PI3K/Akt, and MAPK pathways. Hence, silibinin helps in preventing proliferation of the tumor cells, initiating the cell cycle arrest, and induce cancer cells to die. This review gives the thorough analysis of silibinin in distinct types of cancer such as lung, liver, breast, bladder, prostate, skin and ovarian cancer.