Anti-Cancer Properties of Stevia rebaudiana; More than a Sweetener - PubMed (original) (raw)
Review
Anti-Cancer Properties of Stevia rebaudiana; More than a Sweetener
Nikos Iatridis et al. Molecules. 2022.
Abstract
Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a perennial shrub from Paraguay that is nowadays widely cultivated, since it is increasingly being utilized as a sugar substitute in various foodstuffs due to its sweetness and minimal caloric content. These properties of the plant's derivatives have spurred research on their biological activities revealing a multitude of benefits to human health, including antidiabetic, anticariogenic, antioxidant, hypotensive, antihypertensive, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antitumor actions. To our knowledge, no recent reviews have surveyed and reported published work solely on the latter. Consequently, our main objective was to present a concise, literature-based review of the biological actions of stevia derivatives in various tumor types, as studied in in vitro and in vivo models of the disease. With global cancer estimates suggesting a 47% increase in cancer cases by 2040 compared to 2020, the data reviewed in this article should provide a better insight into Stevia rebaudiana and its products as a means of cancer prevention and therapy within the context of a healthy diet.
Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana; antioxidant; antitumor activity; bioactive compound; breast cancer; cancer prevention; cytotoxicity; gastrointestinal cancer.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Figures
Figure 1
Steviol and SGs from the plant Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Steviol is the core aglycone of the glycosides. Stevioside, Rebaudioside A and Rebaudioside C are the most abundant glycosides. Dulcoside A is described in studies reviewed in this paper. Steviolbioside is a hydrolysis product of Stevioside often used in anti-cancer studies. (Structures were designed using Chem Draw Ultra).
Figure 2
SG metabolism in the human body. Steviol with sugar molecules attached to it enters the body, but it cannot be metabolized by the components of the upper GI track. SG metabolism starts in the large intestine, where gut microflora breaks the β-glycosidic bonds removing the sugar molecules, leaving the core steviol to be transported to the liver via the hepatic portal vein. In the liver, a glucuronide molecule is attached to steviol, leading to the formation of steviol glucuronide, which is subsequently transported to the kidneys via systemic circulation and is finally eliminated via urination. (The outline of the human body was reproduced from
, accessed on 20 December 2021).
Figure 3
Chemical structures of (A) mono-quaternized derivative of steviol and (B) bis-quaternized derivative of isosteviol. Reprinted from [24] with permission from Elsevier (Structures were designed by using ChemDraw Ultra (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA, USA)).
Figure 4
Chemical structures of (A) Isosteviol, (B) Isosteviol with a modified carboxyl group and (C) an Isosteviol triazole conjugate attached to a benzene ring, as described in [28]. (Structures were reproduced from the original study using ChemDraw Ultra).
Figure 5
Chemical structure of the steviol 19-O-acylated derivative ent- 454 kaur-16-ene-13,19-diol 19-_O_-4′,4′,4′-trifluorocrotonate. Reprinted from [44] with permission from Wiley. (Structure was designed by using ChemDraw Ultra).
References
- Salehi B., López M.D., Martínez-López S., Victoriano M., Sharifi-Rad J., Martorell M., Rodrigues C.F., Martins N. Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni bioactive effects: From in vivo to clinical trials towards future therapeutic approaches. Phytother. Res. 2019;33:2904–2917. doi: 10.1002/ptr.6478. -DOI -PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
Substances
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources