Puerarin: An Anticancer and Anti-Inflammatory Agent

Abstract

Objective: Puerarin is a well-known anti-inflammatory agent which has demonstrated its potential to cure numerous ailments. Though many plants are reported in the literature, still their mechanisms are unversed. In this review, numerous mechanisms of puerarin to cure cancer and other inflammatory disorders, pharmacokinetics and adverse events, and boulevards of further research are discussed. Methods: Organized research was done using ScienceDirect, PubMed, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Google Patents and ScienceDirect Medline to quest all the available data to date on puerarin. Different keywords used were “puerarin”, “Pueraria tuberosa”, “cancer”, “antiinflammatory”, “cardiovascular”, “IBD”, “pharmacokinetics” etc. Results: One hundred thirty-six articles and thirteen patents were studied. Puerarin is reported to treat chronic problems like inflammation, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases and menaces such as colon, stomach, lung and breast cancer by numerous mechanisms, as these ailments do not progress via a single independent pathway. Conclusion: This article will definitely help budding researchers scrutinize the wealth of information on the therapeutic chattels of puerarin and identify the gaps that have forbidden its application as a potential molecule to cure various ailments.