Anti-cancer activities of Schedule E1 drugs used in ayurvedic formulations

Schedule E1 is an important part of Drugs and Cosmetics Act (Government of India) that comprises the list of poisonous drugs from plant, animal and mineral origins to be consumed under medical supervision. Ayurveda, the world's oldest medicinal system has a list of drugs represented in schedule E1 that are used since thousands of years. This review reports the anti-cancer activities of fifteen toxic ayurvedic drugs from plant origin represented in Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The information was collected from the various authentic sources, compiled and summarised. The plant extracts, formulations, phytoconstituents and other preparations of these drugs have shown effective activities against mammary carcinoma, neuroblastoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, lymphocytic leukaemia, colorectal adenocarcinoma, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, prostate adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma asterocytoma and other malignancies. They have various mechanisms of action including Bax upregulation, Bcl(2) downregulation, induction of cell cycle arrest at S phase, G2/M phase, inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factors, inhibition of Akt/mTOR signalling etc. Certain traditional ayurvedic preparations containing these plants are reported beneficial and the possibilities of these drugs as the alternative and adjuvant therapeutic agents in the current cancer care have been discussed. The studies suggest that these drugs could be utilised in future for the critical care of malignancies.