Bioactive Compounds

**199**

**Chapter 10**

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

Cytotoxic and Antitumoral

from Cucurbitaceae Plants

*and Salud Pérez Gutiérrez*

*David Salinas Sánchez, Cuauhtemoc Pérez González* 

from Cucurbitaceae plants with cytotoxic or antitumoral activity.

**Keywords:** cucurbitacin, Cucurbitaceae, cytotoxic, cancer, natural product

5-year prevalent cancer cases occurred in less-developed regions [1, 2].

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells, which begin to divide without stopping and can form solid tumors. Cancer is a collection of more than 100 different diseases with genetic changes, which can be inherited or be caused by environmental exposure to chemicals, tobacco smoke, or radiation, such as UV rays from the sun. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US and is responsible for approximately 1 out of every 4 deaths. Globally, nearly 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer. Approximately, 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries. There were 14.1 million new cancer cases, 8.2 million cancer deaths, and 32.6 million people living with cancer (within 5 years of diagnosis) in 2012 worldwide, based on World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. A total of 57% (8 million) of new cancer cases, 65% (5.3 million) of cancer deaths, and 48% (15.6 million) of

Activities of Compounds Isolated

*Carlos Alberto Méndez-Cuesta, Ana Laura Esquivel Campos,* 

The WHO says that annual cases of cancer will increase from 14 million in 2012 to 22 million in the next two decades. Cancer is the second cause of death in the world; in 2015, it caused 8.8 million deaths. On the other hand, it is necessary to consider that 70% of the total deaths due to this disease occur in developing countries, who have the least resources to acquire the drugs of choice for the treatment of this disease. Although there are treatments and these are effective, there are currently cases of resistance to drugs used to treat this disease, which has led to the search for new sources of drugs or compounds effective against the cancer being active; plants are the possible sources to achieve this. Cucurbitaceae is a family of plants widely distributed on the planet which has been used traditionally for the treatment of this disease and from they have been isolated different cucurbitanes. These compounds possess a wide biological activity, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, or cytotoxic and antitumoral effects. The aim of this review is to present 51 cucurbitacin compounds and 2 with different structures isolated
