Anticancer Properties of Solamargine: A Systematic Review

Cancers are usually treated by anticancer agents that are toxic for both normal and cancer cells, so these drugs have major side effects and they are not suitable and enough effective for cancer prevention. Solamargine, a steroidal alkaloid glycoside found in Solanum species such as Solanum nigrum, displayed several therapeutic activities. We aim to review the use of solamargine in experimental cancer studies. Articles published in biology journals between 1975 and 2017 were retrieved from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science using relevant keywords. The scientific papers mainly focusing on solamargine with therapeutic efficacies against cancers were identified and tabulated. In addition, the reliability of experimental findings was determined under “Risk of Bias” criteria. The author manually reviewed 33 articles; 27 articles were found concerning the anti‐cancer potential in cancer cells. Solamargine has been found to possess anticancer activities via its effect on a variety of biological pathways including cell survival pathways, tumor suppressor pathways, caspase activation pathway, mitochondrial pathways, death receptor pathways, protein kinase pathways, and signal pathways, which promote invasion/migration and multi drug resistance. Solamargine can be an anticancer agent candidate when complementary scientific evidences become available. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.