Programmed cell death (PCD) is decisive in eliminating affected cells in human cancers, whereas there are increasing cases of cancer-related death due to side effects of modern treatment methods. There is an urge for new methods of growth inhibition and elimination of cancer cells with a lower cytotoxicity to normal cells. Irregularity along PCD pathways plays a crucial role in cancer cell carcinogenesis. Apoptosis is a distinct cell death mechanism occurring in multicellular organisms and also called type one programmed cell death. Autophagy and paraptosis are non-apoptotic PCD occurring in multicellular organisms. Natural compounds are the fundament of pharmacological treatments, and flavonoids are natural polyphenolic compounds which are unique due to their diverse chemical structures and various biological active mechanisms like anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and much more. This gives an increasing number of studies indicating that some flavonoids from medicinal plants could be promising candidates for new natural anticancer drugs, which attract high interests of academic researchers and advanced users. An understanding of the underlying mechanism of PCD induced by flavonoids in cancer cells is important as it plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. This systematic review is to report flavonoids and their derivatives as new anticancer candidates to stimulate PCD with a different mechanism based on the pharmacological evidence.

감귤류의 껍질은 플라보노이드의 중요한 소스 중의 하나로서 동아시아에서 내장 및 염증성 질환을 치료하는 민간 의약품으로서 사용되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 하귤 (C. natsudaidai) 껍질에 포함되어 있는 플라보노이드 성분을 고성능액체크로마토그래피-이중질량분석법 (HPLC-MS/MS)으로 10 개성분을 동정하였다. 플라바논, 플라본 및 쿠마린 유도체는 각각 hesperetin, noviletin 및 coumarin을 사용하여 유효화 하였으며 유효화된 방법으로 정량하였다. 상관계수 (r2)는 > 0.9970으로서 높은 값을 보여주었다. LOD는 >0.01 mg/L이었으며 LOQ는 >0.05 mg/L이었다. 플라보노이드의 총량은 9229.7 ± 0.5 mg/kg 이었다. Naringin의 량이 5010.0 ± 4.5 mg/kg으로 가장 많았으며 sinensetin의 량이 0.6 ± 0.1 mg/kg으로 가장 적었다. 항산화력을 25 μg/mL 에서 500 μg/mL의 농도범위에서 DPPH·, ABTS·+, NO· 소거능 및 FRAP의 항으로 분석하였다. 감귤 플라보노이드의 항산화 능력은 시료의 량이 증가하면 증가함을 알 수 있다.