Citrus and its Fight against Cancer

Traditional medicine has made extensive use of natural products, due to their extensive therapeutic applications. There is an increasing demand and acceptance of the use of medicinal plants due to their efficacy. For about 60,000 years ago, plants have been used as drugs according to several works of literature. It is evident that the Citrus genus, belonging to the Rutaceae family, possesses a range of pharmacological activities, including anticancer, antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, antimicrobial, hepatoprotective activity, and cardiovascular activity. Polysaccharides present in pomelo (C. maxima) peels act on S180 (murine sarcoma cells) Tumour-Bearing Mice by improving splenic lymphocyte proliferation ability and inhibiting the activity of NK cells, and leaf extract act on prostate carcinoma DU145 Cells by suppressing constitutive STAT-3 activation. At the same time, alcoholic extract of Citrus aurantium bloom showed an appreciable effect against breast cancer and human colon adenocarcinoma cells with IC50 152.34 ± 0.75 μg/mL, 49.74 ± 0.75 μg/mL, and 96.23 ± 0.75 μg/mL respectively. The emulsion prepared from the volatile oil of C. sinensis reduced viability in colon cancer cell lines and simultaneously upregulated BAX/BCL2 along with the suppression of vascular endothelial growth factor. Bergamottin and 5- geranyloxy-7-methoxycoumarin obtained from Citrus bergamia downregulated the proliferation of neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) cells, inducing apoptosis and positively regulated cell population in the sub-G0/G1 phase. The elevated BAX, downregulated BCL-2, released cytochrome C (cyt. c) in the cytoplasm, and cleaved PARP in breast cancer cells suggest that phytochemical constituents in lemon seed extracts might be a useful source of antioxidants and induce cell death via the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Bergamottin, a furanocoumarin obtained from peels of Citrus hystrix fruits, showed promising activity against pancreatic carcinoma cells by inhibiting survival proteins in the AKT/mTOR pathway. The detailed information on different species of the Citrus genus in the field of antineoplastic pharmacology might add value to the scientific evaluation for exploring more medicinal applications of these plants.