The flavokawains: uprising medicinal chalcones

Plant-based compounds have been in the spotlight in search of new and promising drugs. Flavokawain A, B and C are naturally occurring chalcones that have been isolated from several medicinal plants; namely the piper methysticum or commercially known as the kava-kava. Multiple researches have been do...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abu, Nadiah, Ho, Wan Yong, Yeap, Swee Keong, Akhtar, Muhammad Nadeem, Abdullah, Mohd Puad, Omar, Abdul Rahman, Mohammed Alitheen, Noorjahan Banu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 2013
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/28086/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/28086/1/art%253A10.1186%252F1475-2867-13-102.pdf
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Summary:Plant-based compounds have been in the spotlight in search of new and promising drugs. Flavokawain A, B and C are naturally occurring chalcones that have been isolated from several medicinal plants; namely the piper methysticum or commercially known as the kava-kava. Multiple researches have been done to evaluate the bioactivities of these compounds. It has been shown that all three flavokawains may hold promising anti-cancer effects. It has also been revealed that both flavokawain A and B are involved in the induction of cell cycle arrest in several cancer cell lines. Nevertheless, flavokawain B was shown to be more effective in treating in vitro cancer cell lines as compared to flavokawain A and C. Flavokawain B also exerts antinociceptive effects as well as anti-inflammation properties. This mini-review attempts to discuss the biological properties of all the flavokawains that have been reported.