Research progress on sources,pharmacological activities,and clinical applications of cephalotaxines

The plants in Cephalotaxus Sieb.et Zucc.are very important medicinal plants with the significant anticancer activity.They have cephalotaxines as main alkaloids which can be obtained by many kinds of ways,such as plant tissue culture,chemical synthesis,and by means of endophytic fungi as well.These alkaloids have strong antitumor effect and the main mechanisms of them are inhibitory protein gene expression and induction of the cell differentiation and apoptosis.Because of their obvious pharmacological effects,they could be used to treat the patients with the acute and chronic diseases such as leukemia and lupus erythematosus in clinic.In this paper the recent progresses in the research of chemical resourse,pharmacological activities and clinical applications of the cephalotaxines are reviewed.