Healthy lifestyle, home remedies and cost-effective phytomedicines are the beneficial modalities that are considered to be the first-employed preventive measure or treatment for many health problems such as obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and certain cancers. Phytomedicines are the reliable and potential method of prevention and treatment as it involves bio-actives like quercetin, fisetin, lycopene, geniposide that derived from plants instead of containing synthetic medications.
Comprehending the underlying mechanism of these bio-actives will unfold inceptive routes for the pharmaceutical industry and helps to formulate alternative treatment approaches to manage chronic diseases like tumors and cancers.
Preventing destructive disorders like cancer and tumor is a prudent and optimum approach than elusive cancer care. Also, phytomedicines along with the chemotherapeutic treatments can behave synergistically to improve patients' compliance and the body's defense system. One of the potent phytochemicals that have been the component of interest in the past few years in cancer prevention and management is fisetin.
Let's explore phytochemicals in little deep & know about sources from which we can include this phytomedicine in our daily routine:
- What is fisetin?
- What are the sources of fisetin?
- Fisetin for cancer prevention and management
- Conclusion
What is fisetin?
Fisetin is a flavonol that belongs to the category of plant's secondary metabolites and can be found in the plant's green parts, barks, fruits, and hardwood. The very first record of these phytochemical dates back in 1833 from a plant named Venetian sumach.
What are the sources of fisetin?
The strawberries contain the highest concentration of this flavonol i.e. 160 μg/g, followed by apple (26.9 μg/g), persimmon (10.5μg/g), lotus root (5.8μg/g), onion, grape (4.8μg/g), kiwi (3.9μg/g), peach (0.6μg/g), cucumber (0.1μg/g) and tomato (0.1μg/g).
Fisetin also found in other trees and shrubs like Acacia gregii, parrot tree, honey locust, lac tree, smoke tree, yellow cypress, and quebracho colorado.
Fisetin for cancer prevention and management
Based on emerging pieces of evidence, fisetin can prevent and manages several types of cancers and tumors, such as hepatic, pancreatic and colorectal via exhibiting potent anti-cancer actions.
Induction of Apoptosis
Like other plant-derived components such as cordycepin, ursolic acid, kaempferol and quercetin, fisetin also possess potent apoptotic activities. Fisetin activates both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways and invokes substantial antitumor activity.
Cell Cycle Arrest
Cancer cells predominantly affect all phases of cell cycle machinery. Here cyclin-dependent kinases can play a significant role by maintaining the cell division homeostasis, inducing growth arrest, and blocking cell cycle progression. Fisetin tends to mitigate the over-expression of cancer-promoting factors and anti-proliferative effects via S, G2/M, and G0/G1 phase arrest.
Antimetastasis
Invasion of cancer cells is the major reason behind cancer-associated mortality and morbidity. Fisetin down-regulates the matrixins or signaling pathways that promote tumor invasion and progression.
Antiangiogenesis
Fisetin in combination with chemotherapeutic agents such as sorafenib and cyclophosphamide helps in controlling the process of angiogenesis, which is essential for cancer cells proliferation.
Other than anti-angiogenic properties, fisetin also exhibits potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Due to such actions, fisetin has created a big interest for researchers to evaluate more about this phytochemical in the context of cancer management.
Recommended dietary intake of fisetin
The average daily intake of fisetin from the dietary sources is 0.4 mg. You can include fisetin by incorporating foods that are rich in this phytochemical.
Conclusion
Confronting cancer or not, adding fisetin in the daily routine will help to protect from many-body ailments by keeping your health sound and salubrious.
Like fisetin, you can also read about phytochemicals like berberine or wogonin.