Antineoplastic potential of Trichosanthes dioica Root: A treatise

Medicinal plants have duly been implicated in the development of typical antineoplastic agents. Here, the medicinal plant under discourse, Trichosanthes dioica Roxb., commonly known as Pointed gourd in English, Potol in Bengali, is a climber vine found wild and cultivated all over the plains of India and its neighbouring countries for its fruits, consumed as a favoured vegetable. The present work attempts to assemble and critically assess the literature outcome of the antineoplastic potential of T. dioica root. The antineoplastic effects involved cytotoxic, antimitotic, antitumor and cancer chemopreventive potential of its root - mediated through multifaceted mechanisms. The cytotoxic, antimitoitic and antioxidant effects together may furnish the mechanistic grounds for its reported antitumor and cancer chemopreventive activities. Further studies on T. dioica root in this direction, may afford newer effective antitumor leads/drugs from this plant part.