REVIEW ON MULTIFACETED ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF OCIMUM SANCTUM AND ITS CONSTITUENTS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Ocimum sanctum Linn (OS), is the medicinal herb belonging to the Lamiaceae family, well-known as the 'Holi Basil' or 'Tulsi". It has been a part of ayurveda and Indian culture for its tremendous ethnomedicinal significance as it is employed to cure common cough and cold along with bronchitis, skin diseases, insect bite etc. The leaves of OS in particular are widely used for the treatment of cancer. Approximately 15 different types of biologically active chemicals have been extracted, purified and identified from this medicinal herb. The anticancer properties of the crude and purified products from OS have been studied extensively over decades. They showed tumor suppressive, radioprotective, chemo-preventive, anti-metastatic, anti-angiogenic and apoptotic effect on various types of cancer. This review summarizes the anticancer effect and mechanism of the purified products and extract obtained from OS on various cancers like breast, colon, lung, liver etc. The summarized report would help to fine-tune our understanding on the anti-cancer properties of OS that might open up new horizon in developing natural product-based cost-efficient cancer drug.