REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1648395
This article is part of the Research TopicReviews in Ethnopharmacology: 2025View all 35 articles
Exploring the Pharmacokinetics, Drug-Likeness, and Toxicological Features of Anticancer Flavonoids: A Boulevard to Explore their Clinical Translational Potential
Provisionally accepted
Ankit Kumar Dubey1
Chandragiri Siva Sai2
Abin V Geevarghese3
Bhupinder Kapoor4
Monica Gulati4Pooja Rani4Gursharan Singh4
Vivek P Chavda5
Rohit Gundamaraju6
Himangini Bansal7
Rupesh K Gautam8
Rajat Goyal9
Michael P Okoh10
Bairong Shen1
Rajeev K. Singla11*- 1West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 2The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, Oklahoma City, United States
- 3PSG College of Pharmacy, Coimbatore, India
- 4Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India
- 5LM College of Pharmacy, Ahmedabad, India
- 6University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
- 7Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, New Delhi, India
- 8Indore Institute of Pharmacy, Indore, India
- 9Maharishi Markandeshwar College of Pharmacy, Mullana, India
- 10University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria
- 11Department of Pharmacy and Institutes for Systems Genetics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Delhi, China
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Background: Flavonoids that are widely distributed across various plant species exhibit significant anticancer activity in various preclinical and clinical studies, thus offering promising therapeutic prospects. However, a thorough understanding of their pharmacokinetic properties, drug-likeness characteristics, and safety profile is essential for the translational applicability of these molecules into clinical settings. Methods: A systematic search was carried out using various electronic databases such as PubMed Central, ScienceDirect, Clinical Registry, and Google Scholar, using different keywords like "flavonoids", "cancer", "pharmacokinetics," "toxicity," "tumor", and their combinations. Non-English literature was excluded due to language barriers, limited accessibility, non-indexing, and the risk of misinterpreting methods or results, which could compromise the accuracy and reliability of the review. Results and Discussion: This review provides an in-depth overview of various mechanistic pathways, such as oxidative stress-mediated and immunomodulatory pathways, that are considered to be responsible for the anti-cancer potential of flavonoids. In addition, the pharmacokinetic properties and toxicity profile of flavonoids have been discussed, which are the crucial factors in their clinical translation. Lastly, the review briefly explores various strategies that can be adopted to improve the effectiveness of flavonoids in the treatment of cancer. Conclusion: This investigation enhances our understanding of the translational potential of flavonoid-based therapies by highlighting these essential elements, bringing us one step closer to the development of effective and safe cancer treatments.
Keywords: Flavonoids, Anticancer agents, pharmacokinetics, admet, Drug Toxicity
Received: 17 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dubey, Siva Sai, Geevarghese, Kapoor, Gulati, Rani, Singh, Chavda, Gundamaraju, Bansal, Gautam, Goyal, Okoh, Shen and Singla. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rajeev K. Singla, Department of Pharmacy and Institutes for Systems Genetics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 110078, Delhi, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.