Efficacious anti-cancer property of flavonoids from citrus peels

Cancer is one of the two leading human fatal diseases. Drug development for cancer intervention has progressed well in past decades yet existing drugs face many limitations in applications and effectiveness and are often associated with serious of side effects, which can further deteriorate the patients’ quality of life. Recent development of natural product based and therapeutically sound anti-cancer agents have gained popularity in the field of functional foods, in which a few have demonstrated efficacy and minimal toxicity toward the prevention and treatment of carcinogenesis. With multiple active molecular components, citrus peels and derived extracts have demonstrated potent efficacious properties against various cancers due in large part to the rich content of flavonoids present in citrus peels. This review summarizes the results of currently available data regarding the in vivo anti-cancer activity of citrus peel flavonoids, and identifies opportunities for subsequent human clinical trials to assess preventive and therapeutic effects in the near future.