Exploring the Anticancer Potentials of Polyphenols: A Comprehensive Review of Patents in the Last Five Years

Background: Polyphenols found abundantly in plants exhibit various anti-carcinogenic effects on tumor cells, including angiogenesis, metastasis, anti-proliferating agents, inflammation, and apoptosis. In recent years, many novel polyphenolic compounds with anticancer activity have been identified worldwide, and few of them are promising anticancer drugs to cure or inhibit cancer growth by interfering with cancer initiation, promotion, and progression. Objectives: This mini-review aims to provide a comprehensive survey of the information about polyphenolic anticancer drugs disclosed in worldwide patents and discuss their possibility of developing as drugs used as anticancer drugs in clinical settings. Methods: In the present mini-review, we have revealed the anticancer properties of polyphenols presented according to their mechanisms of action. PubMed, Google Patents, and SciDirect databases were used to compile the present study. Results: In the last five years, various anticancer polyphenols were revealed in worldwide patents in the last decades, and their mode of action pointed out cytoskeletal damage, arresting cell cycle, inhibiting kinase, and tumor suppressor protein expression. Conclusion: Many newly found polyphenols display a promising anticancer potential both in vitro and in vivo, and a few anticancer polyphenols act to inhibit the growth of various human cancer cells. Also, we have given an overview of patents filed in the last five years related to the anticancer potentials of polyphenols.