Possible potential of Astrodaucus genus in development of anticancer drugs

OBJECTIVE: Many pharmaceutical factories have dramatically improved the quality of herbal remedies in cancer treatment. The results of somestudies have shown anticancer effect of Astrodaucus genus. Therefore, the aim of this article was to review the chemical ingredients and biological effects of Astrodaucus genus especially A. persicus from the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Online databases ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched using the keywords Astrodaucus, Apiaceae, Biologic, Phytochemistry, and Benzodioxole to retrieve studies published between 1970 and 2020. RESULTS: The Astrodaucus genus has two species, Astrodaucus persicus (Boiss.) Drude and Astrodaucus orientalis (L.) Drude. In this genus, 5 new biologically active phytochemicals with benzodioxole structure were introduced and their biological effects were assessed. CONCLUSION: Since many of the most commonly used anticancer drugs such as etoposide, teniposide, podophyllotoxin and sanguinarine have benzodioxole structureand according to the results of biological tests, it seems that more researchwith these perspectives should be done on this genus.