Embelin is a naturally-occurring
benzoquinone compound that has been shown to possess many biological properties relevant to human
cancer prevention and treatment, and increasing evidence indicates that
embelin may modulate various characteristic hallmarks of
tumor cells. This review summarizes the information related to the various oncogenic pathways that mediate
embelin-induced cell death in multiple
cancer cells. The mechanisms of the action of
embelin are numerous, and most of them induce apoptotic cell death that may be intrinsic or extrinsic, and modulate the NF-κB, p53, PI3K/AKT, and STAT3 signaling pathways.
Embelin also induces autophagy in
cancer cells; however, these autophagic cell-death mechanisms of
embelin have been less reported than the apoptotic ones. Recently, several autophagy-inducing agents have been used in the treatment of different human
cancers, although they require further exploration before being transferred from the bench to the clinic. Therefore,
embelin could be used as a potential agent for
cancer therapy.