Indole-3-carbinol is a natural compound present in cruciferous plants, which upon digestion, converts into 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM) under acidic pH of the stomach. In recent years, various methods have been developed to improve the synthesis of DIM and its analogs because of different pharmacological activities like anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, etc. Among them, DIMs anticancer activity by modulation of protein expression in cell signaling pathways and other factors has widely studied. This review describes the antiproli-ferative activity of DIMs and its mode of action, which resulted in apoptosis in various cancerous cells. We have performed a literature search on DIMs anticancer activity over the last ten years (2011-2020) and reported in this review. Several fascinating DIM attributes against cancer suggest it as a potential candidate for further drug development programs. This review will guide the medicinal chemist to find the mechanistic pathways involved in the inhibition of proliferation in cancerous cells by novel DIMs.

A series of indolylkojylmethane (IKM) derivatives (1–23) was synthesized using a multicomponent one‐pot reaction under solvent‐free condition using a heterogeneous catalyst. The synthesized compounds were screened against breast cancer cell lines MDA‐MB‐231, MCF7, and T47D. The structure‐activity relationship revealed that IKM synthesized from aliphatic aldehydes (9–11) were active against all three cell lines and showed IC50 value of 0.15 μM–3.93 μM. IKM synthesized from aromatic aldehydes having electron‐donating group (1, 5, and 6) specifically inhibited the proliferation of the MDA‐MB‐231 cell line. The effect of various substituted indoles (12–17) was also studied and observed that compound 14 synthesized from 5‐cyanoindole, specifically inhibited T47D cell line proliferation. Replacing indole (1) with nucleophiles (18–23) in IKM decreased the antiproliferative activity. Compound 10 synthesized from kojic acid, indole and octanal was found to be most potent with IC50 values of 0.21, 0.15, and 3.45 μM against MDA‐MB‐231, MCF7, and T47D, respectively.