Alkaloids, nitrogen-containing compounds, are found in living organisms
ranging from microbes to seed-producing plants all over the world. About more than
20,000 alkaloids have been discovered, mostly occurring in higher plants of the
families Ranunculaceae, Papaveraceae, Leguminosae, Loganiaceae and
Menispermaceae. These compounds are able to inhibit cancer proliferation, especially
gastrointestinal cancer, which constitutes the highest incidence rate all over the world.
The most diversified group of phytochemicals, alkaloids offer a mighty series of
chemical scaffolds and moieties which can be harnessed to ameliorate the devastating
consequences underlying cancer. Gastrointestinal (GIT) cancers constitute the
malignancies of esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, colorectal and anal tumors, which
possess aberrant metabolic signals giving rise to uncontrolled cell proliferation. These
cancers are the most frequent of all cancers and account for the high mortality rates
worldwide. Conventional therapeutic options carry the risks like being non-economical
as well as they possess severe side effects. Natural products offer a wide spectrum of
pharmacological properties which can overcome these risk factors by providing
cheaper products and are reliable regarding their bio-safety profiles. Alkaloids can be investigated in detail to investigate their pharmacological potential against GIT
cancers. Several alkaloids are known to modulate the cell signaling pathways by
inducing cell cycle arrest at G0/G1, S and G2/M phases in addition to being the
apoptosis inducers. In addition to that, they are also known to target various metabolic
pathways, such as p53, β-catenin, MAPK and PIM3. The chapter intends to investigate
the biological as well as pharmacological profiles of various alkaloids with special
reference to GIT cancers in order to update scientists and researchers about the
pharmaceutical potential of these compounds.
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