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Keywords: angiogenesis apoptosis cell cycle arrest emodin traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) a b s t r a c t Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is widely used in clinical research due to its low toxicity, low number of side effects, and low cost. Many components of common fruits and vegetables play well-documented roles as chemopreventive or chemotherapeutic agents that suppress tumorigenesis. Anthraquinones are commonly extracted from the Polygonaceae family of plants, e.g., Rheum palmatum and Rheum officinale. Some of the major chemical components of anthraquinone and its derivatives, such as aloe-emodin, danthron, emodin, chrysophanol, physcion, and rhein, have demonstrated potential anticancer properties. This review evaluates the pharmacological effects of emodin, a major component of Aloe vera. In particular, emodin demonstrates anti-neoplastic, anti-inflammatory, anti-angiogenesis, and toxicological potential for use in pharmacology, both in vitro and in vivo. Emodin demonstrates cytotoxic effects (e.g., cell death) through the arrest of the cell cycle and the induction of apoptosis in cancer cells. The overall molecular mechanisms of emodin include cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and the promotion of the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1a, glutathione S-transferase P, N-acetyltransferase,and glutathione phase I and II detoxification enzymes while inhibiting angiogenesis, invasion, migration, chemical-induced carcinogen-DNA adduct formation, HER2/neu, CKII kinase, and p34cdc2 kinase in human cancer cells. Hopefully, this summary will provide information regarding the actions of emodin in cancer cells and broaden the application potential of chemotherapy to additional cancer patients in the future.

Diallyl sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS), and diallyl trisulfide (DATS) are major organosulfur compounds exiting in garlic (Allium sativum). These compounds are reported to exhibit various pharmacological properties such as antibacteria, antiangiogenesis, anticancer, and anticoagulation, and they also induce cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis in human cancer cells. Although these compounds show wide spectrum of biological activities, there are no reports to show that DAS, DADS, and DATS affected migration and invasion of human colon cancer cells, and their exact molecular mechanisms are not well investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether DAS, DADS, and DATS affected the invasion and migration abilities of colo 205 human colon cancer cells. The results indicate that DAS, DADS, and DATS at 10 and 25 μM inhibited the migration and invasion of colo 205 cells in the order of DATS < DADS < DAS. DATS is the highest for inhibition of migration and invasion of colo 205 cells. DAS, DADS, and DATS induce downregulation expression of PI3K, Ras, MEKK3, MKK7, ERK1/2, JNK1/2, and p38 and then lead to the inhibition of MMP-2, -7, and -9. DAS, DADS, and DATS inhibited NF-κB and COX-2 for leading to the inhibition of cell proliferation. Taken together, these results demonstrated that application of DAS, DADS, and DATS might serve as potential antimetastatic drugs.

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