Role of terpenes in regulating leukemia: mechanistic and clinical updates

Leukemia is potentially a fatal disease and is a major public health concern, which is reported to be 13th leading cause of cancer worldwide. Terpenes have been reported to play an important role in food, medicine, cosmetics, hormones, vitamins, and also been found to play a promising role in the field of medicine and have various biological activities, including leukemia, in recent years. This article deals with the publications that were collected from various databases namely PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Sci-Finder, and Google Scholar, etc. while using key words “terpenes and leukemia.” A number of terpenes have shown their effects against leukemia including thymol, D-limonene, ascaridole, thymoquinone, elephantopus Mollis 23, artesunate, glycyrrhizic acid, ursolic acid, nomilin and oleanolic acid showed to induce apoptosis in human leukemia cell lines. Moreover, terpenes for the treatment of leukemia affecting and regulates different signaling cascades. Based on the reported data, it can be assumed that terpenes may be a promising target in combating leukemia, therefore further detail mechanistic and clinical studies could lead to the discovery of more effective therapeutic agents.