Cancer is a broad term. It describes the disease that results when cellular changes cause the uncontrolled growth and division of cells. Cancer is one of leading cause of death worldwide and sustained focus on development of novel anticancer agents from medicinal plants. Traditional medicinal systems are based on plants as a source of medicine for the treatment of life threatening diseases and disorders. Plants from Simaroubaceae family have been the subject of many studies regarding its chemical constitution and numerous compounds have been isolated for the treatment of many diseases. Among these are the quassinoids, alkaloids, triterpenes, steroids, coumarin, anthraquinones, flavonoids and other metabolites. Quassinoids can be considered a taxonomic marker of the Simaroubaceae family. Methanolic extracts of leaf, stem and stem bark of Ailanthus excelsa, Quassia amara and Simarouba glauca from Simaroubaceae family were used for anticancer potential using sulforhodamine B (SRB) cytotoxicity assay against human prostate cancer cell line PC-3. Adriamycin was used as a standard to compare the results. The median growth inhibition (GI50) concentration for methanolic extracts of Ailanthus stem and bark, Quassia stem and bark and Simaroubaleaf, stem and bark was <10 µg/ mlagainst Prostate cancer cell line, which indicates potential anticancer activity. It could be concluded that in vitro anticancer activity could be attributed to the presence of anticancerous phytochemicals like Quassinoid.
