Aims: Many naturally occurring molecules have shown promising anticancer activity; however, common drug-resistant
issues and undesirable side effects have constrained those applications. Thus, new anticancer drugs and drug combination
strategies from nature are highly required. Molecular phylogenetic analysis has been considered as a first step of discovering
new natural bioactive compounds. Materials and Methods: Phylogenetic tree reconstruction based on DNA sequence of
internal transcribed species (ITS) of three medicinal plants from Sumatra which are Tetracera, Rhodamnia, and Flemingia
was performed in the current study. Some ITS sequences of other species, especially anticancer plant Ashwagandha (Withania
somnifera) collected from GenBank were included in the analysis. Results: Parsimony tree showed that Rhodamnia and
Flemingia species are closely related to Ashwagandha, indicating the potencies of Rhodamnia and Flemingia from Sumatra
as anticancer agents. Conclusion: Further, investigations in relation with in vitro, in silico, and in vivo analyses are highly
required. Mechanism of action of those plants, especially as anticancer is described. |