Anticancer Phytochemicals of Citrus Fruits –A Review

Abstract

Citrus is one of the important fruits with many commercial varieties such as sweet orange, grapefruit, lime and lemon. Accumulated evidence from experimental and epidemiological studies indicates that dietary consumption of citrus fruit or juice appears to be inversely associated with lower risk of many infectious diseases including cancers. These beneficial effects of the citrus fruits can in particular be attributed to their chemical constituents. Citrus fruits contain a range of key nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin A, carotenes of various kinds as well as many non-nutrient phytochemicals including classes of flavonoids, glucarates, coumarins, monoterpenes, triterpenes and phenolic acids. While there are several compounds unique to citrus, which are relatively rare in other plants, their individual components such as hesperidin, naringin, tangeritin limonene, quercetin, tangeretin and nobiliten have also demonstrated anticancer activity against different cell lines. The present review summarizes the existing bibliography on biological and pharmacological studies on citrus fruits on the aspect of and cancer therapy.