DOI: 10.21276/sajp

Pages: 236-244

Despite the enormous amount of research and rapid developments seen during the past decades, cancer continues to be a killer and a major public health problem worldwide. Gossypol, a polyphenolic compound derived from cottonseeds, has been the target of many researches due to its multifaceted biological activities such as antifertility, antivirus, antioxidant, antitryphagosomal, antimicrobial, antimalarial and most importantly anticancer activities. In present review we summarized the results of studies obtained in a comprehensive search of Science Direct, PubMed, Scirus, Springer LINK E-books and Web of Science. Basing on its mechanism of action and the synergy with other anticancer agents we found gossypol to be a very good promising chemotherapeutic agent as it has shown its potentiality in vitro, in vivo using animal models and in clinical trials against several different types of cancer.