Natural products are rich in several potent bioactive compounds, targeting complex network of proteins involved in various diseases. Vitex negundo (VN), commonly known as "chaste tree", is an ethnobotanically important plant with enormous medicinal properties. Different species of Vitex vary in chemical composition, thus producing different phytochemicals. Several bioactive compounds have been extracted from leaves, seeds, roots in form of volatile oils, flavonoids, lignans, iridoids, terpenes, and steroids. These bioactive compounds exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, anticancer, antimicrobial. VN is typically known for its role in the modulation of cellular events like apoptosis, cell cycle, motility of sperms, polycystic ovary disease, and menstrual cycle. VN, reportedly, perturbs many cancer-signaling pathways involving p-p38, p-ERK1/2, and p-JNK in LPS-elicited cells, N-terminal kinase (JNK), COX-1 pathways, MAPK, NF-κB, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), Akt, mTOR, vascular endothelial growth factor, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α). Several bioactive compounds obtained from VN have been commercialized and others are under investigation. This is the first review presenting up-to-date information about the VN, its bioactive constituents and their mode of action.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Cancer; Reactive oxygen species; Signaling; Vitex negundo.