Table 1.

The anticancer compounds discussed in this section and their activities.

Alkaloids	Anticancer Activity
Berberine Matrine	Inhibits the proliferation of breast, lung, colon and liver cancer cell lines Inducing the cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in cancer cell Inhibits the proliferation of cancer cell by G1 cell cycle arrest or apoptosis
Piplartine	Antitumor related to its antiproliferative effect
Piperine Sanguinarine Tetrandrine	Antitumor and immunomodulatory Induces cell cycle arrest at different phases or apoptosis in a variety of cancer cell Induces different phases of cell cycle arrest depends on cancer cell types
Aporphine	Antitumor activity against small cell, lung cancer and breast cancer cells, in addition to a high antitumor activity against epidermoid carcinoma
Apomorphine	Antioxidant and antipoliferative activities
Harmine, harmaline harmalacidine, vasicinone	Inhibit topoisomerase 1 resulting in antiproliferation of cancer cells
Evodiamine Sanguinarine	Induce cell cycle arrest or apoptosis, inhibiting the angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis in a variety of cancer cell lines
Matrine	Inhibits the proliferation of various types of cancer cells mainly through the mediation of G1 cell cycle arrest or apoptosis
Tetrandrine	Induces apoptosis in many human cancer cells, including leukemia, bladder, colon, hepatoma, and lung